A Saunter Through Time
by three-days-late
Summary: When Sanji and Nami are kidnapped through time, a strange women offers the crew a chance to save them. When things get twisted and loyalties are tested, how will everyone make it home in one piece?
1. In Soviet Russia, The Louge's Pro You!

**So, this is what they would call a preview, I suppose, but not really.**

**After I deal with all of these plot bunnies that have been annoying me all summer but haven't had time to do anything about, I'll get to focus on this, flesh it out, and make it kinda not-suck.**

**Until that time, you get this. And the summary. But both really tell you nothing. The real first chapter will be better. **

**One Piece is owned by not me. It never was, nor will I ever want it as my own.  
**

* * *

Sanji sat down and sighed, putting his face in his hands. It had been one long and crazy journey and every sensible notion he had should be telling him that he's very lucky to have gotten through the whole thing alive. And yet something was telling him that he needed to go back.

"_You're body just adjusted to being there for so long that it wants to go back." She had explained. "An object in motion will stay in motion or something like that. You were unconscious when you first went through, so you were unaware of the change. Just give yourself time and it'll be normal again."_

Yes, she had said that, so maybe he was feeling restless for some other reason. He decided not to think about it and opened the book on the table in front of him. It was his own personal cook/scrapbook that the pirate chef had had ever since he was a child. As he flipped through the various recipes and the accompanying stories about how he had obtained said recipes he was lulled into the pits of nostalgia. Eventually Sanji remembered his purpose for bringing the book out though, and flipped to the first empty page near the back.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper that after some smoothing out revealed the title _Cali's Extraordinarily Special Deluxe Bacon Brownies_ and the following recipe for said brownies written in slight, neat script not too dissimilar to his Nami-san's.

As the blonde chef taped the recipe into his book, his mind wandered back to Cali-san and the other lovely ladies he had met on this latest adventure, each of them precious and rare gems that he was disappointed to be parted from.

_I wonder if I'll ever…_

He shook the ridiculous thought from his mind. Of course he couldn't see them again. It was impossible, she said so herself.

Hardening his heart, Sanji looked down at the blank page next to the brownie recipe. Dipping his pen in the ink, the Strawhat chef collected his thoughts and retraced his memories back to the very beginning. Back to…

He lowered his pen and began writing:

_It all started on the Nothing Isles…_


	2. And That's Why Nothing is Never Nothing

**Ah, the first chapter is ready, and it's got that new chapter smell and everything! Funny though, word says it's only 2,905 words, while has it marked off at 3,022. Weird. **

**I should just come out and say this now before we get much farther into this thing: I suck at naming things. People, places, chapter titles, whatever. Maybe I should just take a leaf out of Oda's book and just open the nearest bird book and grab the first name that sounds reasonable. **

**I also can't write a decent fight scene. I try though, and maybe I'll be able to nail it by the end of the story for the climax. **

**Enjoy.**

**And look, we have reviews:**

**Abra Cadaverous: **Mwahaha! It's almost like that's my intention. I hope this is fast enough for you though. ;)

**dandy wonderous: **I hope so. I find time travel in general interesting. Wh**_y_** would you **_e_**ver as**_s_**ume something like that? There will actually be several pairings mentioned, but only one will probably be shown (guess which one).

**Silver Child of the Sea: **Yes, this shall be quite a journey for me. And you if you decide to stick around.

**ColourPearl: **Sweet! I'm glad I managed to intrigue you. As you requested, and update. Just for you.

**One Piece is the property of not me. Everything else is.**

* * *

"There's nothing here." Luffy stated bluntly, which wasn't entirely true. There was grass. Lots and lots of grass, for the main island of the Nothing Isles was just a giant grassy plain as far as the eyes could see. No trees or rivers to break the landscape and not even one annoying gnat to distract you from the fact that there really wasn't anything there.

"Well, what were you expecting?" Usopp asked. "They're called the Nothing Isles. It's self evident that they'd have nothing on them."

"There is grass." Robin pointed out."

"Well, there'd have to be something." Franky pointed out. "If there was literally nothing it would be a SUPER phenomenon and actually make this place, like, exciting."

"This place is boring. There aren't even any hooooooooooooorses or treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees to make this place exciting." Luffy pouted. "Why can't we leave?"

"Because _somebody_," Zoro said, "_insists_ that there is treasure here."

"What better place to hide treasure than on an island with nothing else on it? No one would think to look for anything here-"

"Because there's nothing here…" Usopp muttered.

"_So_," Nami continued, "there must be something here."

"Nami-san, you're logic is more cracked than my skull." Brooke stated after a few seconds of silence.

"Is that supposed to be a skull joke?"

"Possibly…" she punched the poor skeleton in the head.

"Now that we are here, what should we do?" Robin asked. "The log only takes a few hours to set."

"Let's just wait on the ship then and get out of here as soon as we can." Zoro said. "It's not like we anything here for us to need anyway."

"What about my treasure?!"

"You mean the one that exists in your head? You can look for that yourself." A black-shoed foot connected sharply with his head.

"Don't talk to Nami-san that way! She's the greatest and most beautiful navigator in the whole Grand Line! If she says there's something here, then there's something here!" Sanji shouted.

"Then you can help her find, ero-cook. I, on the other hand, am going to go take a nap." With that he jumped back on board the Sunny and disappeared from view.

"Bastard…well, then the rest of us, HEY!" he turned to see the rest of the Strawhat Pirate crew make their way onboard the ship sans himself and Nami. "Where do you shitheads think you're taking Robin-chan?"

"This place is _boring_." Luffy said to his cook as if it was the only reason he needed (which it was).

"I'm falling behind on Rumble Balls…" Chopper admitted sheepishly.

"Sunny's still a bit beat from that last attack," Franky said matter of factly. "I should really do my job rather than go on imaginary treasure hunts."

"Shitty cyborg…"

"Sorry, but I did come across this rather interesting book in the library this morning."

"3~No one blames you, Robin-chwan!!~3"

"Yohoho! There really is no point to this excursion, is there? I rather hope you understand my unwillingness to participate."

"That's the worst excuse ever!" Nami shouted before rounding on Usopp. "You better have a damn good reason for going back to the ship or else…"

"Um, I've been meaning to fix up Kabuto and your Climatact." Usopp said. "Well, since Sanji's going with you…and I don't you'll need it cause there's nothing here…"

"…Fine. It's pretty beat up anyway." She handed her weapon to the sharpshooter who then scurried back onboard their ship. "I guess it's just you and me."

"3~Hooray! A date with my Nami-swan!! This is the best island ever!!~3" A fist collided with his head.

"It's not a date! We're looking for treasure, and we better find some…"

"3~Of course!!~3"

* * *

"I hate to admit it Nami-san, but I don't think that there's-"

"Shut up!"

After several long hours of walking through the plain and finding nothing but more grass, Sanji and Nami found themselves on the other side of the island. The sun was starting to set, which actually created a very lovely scene; however the pirates were too worn out from the day's exertion to pay it any mind.

Nami was sitting down with her knees drawn close to her chest overlooking the ocean. Sanji was standing behind her looking out at the orange and purple horizon.

"We should head back, Nami-san. The others'll start to worry."

"I can't just head back empty handed." She replied, putting her chin on her knees.

"They never expected us to find anything in the first place."

"That just makes it even worse!" She turned her head away from him before muttering rather immaturely, "I hate being wrong."

Sanji's first thought was something along the lines of _Mellorine! Nami-san is so cute when she's being stubborn!!_ His second thought was _Nami-san is so brilliant, even being wrong this one time doesn't mean much._ He chose to voice the second one.

"True," she replied, "but I can see that smug look on Zoro's face from here."

"I'll kick his ass for even attempting to try!"

"Let's stay here a little longer…its kinda nice here." She stretched out here legs and looked out towards the sea.

"Of course Nami-san!" He planted himself right next to her. Without thinking, Nami leaned her head against his shoulder. Instantly his eye turned into a heart and a million complements made their way to his tongue.

"Say anything to ruin this and your dead." Nami said in her don't-mess-with-me tone. Sanji shut his mouth and turned to stare at the ocean, content with just relaxing here with his mellorine.

Fate however, as the young chef was soon to found out, didn't like it when everything was going his way.

She felt it first: nothing more than slight disturbance in the air. However when you spent most of your life picking up on the smallest changes in the weather, and the vast majority of your day on an island where nothing was happening, it's really the little things that you pick up on the easiest. She stood up and turned her back to the sea.

"Nami-san?" He asked questioningly, before he tasted it: a metallic burn in the air. He quickly jumped in front of the orange haired navigator to protect her from the danger he knew would be coming.

Moments later a hazy shimmer appeared in the air. The wind around the small cliff side picked up and that metallic taste grew stronger until a tearing sound filled the pirates' ears. They were faced with the strange phenomenon of staring at a huge tear in the air which would have been undistinguishable from the rest of the landscape has it not been high noon on the other side of the tear. Stranger still were the two men who had stepped out of the tear.

Nami and Sanji took defensive positions as they faced with the duo. The taller of the two stood at about Sanji's height thanks to his ridiculous lime-green top hat. He complemented the hat with a pimp cane, a yellow shirt, a lime-green blazer that was left unbuttoned, dark purple dress pants, and green flip flops. His partner, who was several inches shorter than Nami, sported a bright red fedora, matching pinstripe shirt and black vest with black dress pants and dress shoes. Their matching black hair and eyes and similar body structures lead the two Strawhats to correctly assume that these two where brothers.

"Wells Horace," the short one said, "We just happens to take a quick li'l trip to the past and lookie at whats we finds here!"

"Indeed, Jasper," the taller one responded, "I myself would never have fathomed finding two such persons out and about in this very spot at this very moment."

"Ya tinks maybe deys can helps us?"

"It certainly would not hurt our chances in the slightest if we ask." The one called Horace turned towards Nami and Sanji and said, "Pardon me kind sir, but would you perchance know of the location of the Second Pirate King? Our sources have informed us that he is currently located here, in this place at this time."

By this time, Sanji and Nami had relaxed enough to for Nami to peek out from behind Sanji's arm and stare at the pair curiously and for Sanji to straighten up and light a cigarette.

"Second Pirate King?" He asked curiously.

"Why yes. Ah, how foolish of me. I had forgotten that the Second one has yet to be crowned in this time." He started rustling through the pockets of his coat. "I must have it around here somewhere…Jasper, do you recall the location those papers that she so kindly placed in our position?"

Jasper reached into his back pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a bounty poster. "Ya means these?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. Thank you so much." He took the papers, unfolded one, and presented it to the pirates in front of him.

It was a testament to how long Sanji and Nami had been traveling with him that they were not at all surprised by the fact that it was indeed Luffy's bounty poster. The picture was of an older version of Luffy; he looked to be about twenty or so, his hair was a tide longer and more unruly and he had grown a slight beard, but his trusty straw hat was still firmly on his head and his maniac grin was still equally so on his face. The writing on the poster was faded to the point where one could barely make out the MONKEY D. LUFFY and the bounty was completely unrecognizable, implying that the poster was very old.

"No, can't say that I have." Sanji replied.

"For cereals?" Jasper grabbed the second paper out of his brother's hand and shoved it into Sanji's hands. "Wells, how bouts her?" Nami peered at the second poster of his shoulder and gasped in time with the cook.

The second poster was in a similar condition as the first, meaning that the name was still legible while the bounty was completely faded. The picture showed an orange haired girl of around twenty one or so who was wearing a rather skimpy black dress revealing a blue tattoo of a pinwheel and a mikan. She was winking at the camera over her shoulder, thunder-charged Climatact in hand.

Sanji's emotions went through several stages at this point. First the initial Mellorine!-Nami-san-looks-so-sexy phase followed by the more rational Panic!-these-men-are-after-Nami-san phase and ended with the Anger!-THESE-MEN-ARE-AFTER-NAMI-SAN phase. He gave them a quick one over and decided that if necessary he could take them. However after he factored in their unusual entrance and the fact that they were from the future, he ultimately decided that it would be better to send them on their way.

"No, can't say I've seen here around here either." Nami nodded in agreement.

"Well that is quite a shame then." Horace replied. "We are very sorry to have bothered you, but wait a moment. Jasper, do you ever recall our Boss being wrong before?"

"Nu-uh Horace. Dat's the first things ya learns with da Boss lady. She ain't nevers wrong."

"And it does seem to me that there is indeed a young lady with orange hair in the vicinity who just so happens to have a similar tattoo as the women in that poster you are holding kind sir." Nami reflexively covered her tattoo with her hand and took a step back. Sanji crumpled the poster in his hand and took a defensive position once more. "Would it be correct to assume that you are lying to us?"

Sanji responded by surging forward and swinging his foot out with a fierce kick. Horace dodged out of the way while Jasper jumped out in front to take the kick with his gut. The blonde was stunned for a moment when no damage had appeared to be taken before he asked, "Impact Dial?"

"Yep, it's an Impacts Dial. I gots several of dems hidden on my persons, but you gots to finds dem all on yours own cause I ain't telling where deys are." With a flick of his wrists, two kunai knives appeared in his hands as he lunged forward with a slash. Sanji dodged backwards into a handstand before completing his flip and landing back to back with Nami who was fighting back Horace and his surprisingly sharp pimp cane with her spare bo staff.

Sanji swung his foot into Jasper's left side. Jasper attempted to block this attack with his kunai but underestimated the cook's power and easily flew towards the center of the island. He took the impact of his fall with left hip (where Sanji assumed another Impact Dial was hidden) and rolled into a crouching position.

"Dats was just a lucky shots!"

"Jasper, remember these are the Pirate King's nakama. Please don't underestimate them." Horace said as he entered a series of twists, turns, and thrusts that made him look more like he was dancing rather than fighting.

"Right, I knows. I can takes him." He launched into the air with a spin and aimed for Sanji's midsection. The chef was able to easily sidestep this, however, and send his foot crashing on the other man's head.

"Ow! Dat hurts!" He shot a glare Sanji's way. "Why'd you goes and do thats?"

"It's a fight, shithead, of course I'm gonna hurt you!"

"Never mind such trivialities. We have acquired what we came here for so we may depart now." Jasper sprang up from the ground as Sanji turned to find Horace approaching the tear that he and his brother had come from with an unconscious Nami over his shoulder. "A thousand pardons, my good sir, but it seems that we must cut this visit of ours short." He said as he tipped his hat in Sanji's direction and disappeared into the tear. His brother followed shortly after.

"Like hell you are!" Sanji lunged after the two of them into the tear kick first and felt a satisfied crunch as he felt something crack beneath his foot.

"Ow! Damns it, dids he follows us?!"

"Yes, it appears that would be the case." Horace put Nami down on the ground as he turned his pimp can to face Sanji. As Sanji recovered to a standing position he noticed the tear behind him close but figured he could worry about that later. Right now Nami-san was unconscious and in their hands and unconscious.

He lunged out with a kick as Horace dodged left with a flick on his cane. He managed to prick Sanji's leg enough to break through his pants and skin to draw blood. As Sanji hit the ground and turned to face his opponent again, his world turned black as he hit the ground in unconsciousness.

* * *

"Mah, when are those two getting back?" Luffy complained as he leaned over the edge of the railing to get a good view to see his nakama heading back. "They're taking forever."

"Maybe they actually found some treasure?" Chopper said full of hope.

"More like they didn't and they're both sulking by the ocean somewhere." Zoro replied.

"Maybe the Creature of the Nothing got a hold of them?" Usopp ventured a guess.

"Creature of the Nothing?! Sounds scary." Chopper shivered.

"Yes, it is a truly frightening beast that exists in the very center of the Nothing Isles. I am the only man to have ever escaped from its grasps alive, so I know of its truly terrifying power."

"Oh no! Sanji! Nami!"

"Don't worry yourself Reindeer-gorilla. There's nothing here at all, let alone something as stupid as that." Franky reassured Chopper.

"My epic opponents in my epic tales of epic heroism are not stupid!"

"I don't care where they are, I just want them to get back soon so we can go!" Luffy said.

"I doubt you'll be seeing them any _time_ soon."

"Robin, don't be so morbid."

"I did not say anything, Luffy." Robin responded.

"It had to have been you. Who else would?"

"Just a guess, but possibly that women sitting on the railing right next to you."

Luffy jumped down off the railing and turned to where Robin was indicating. Zoro drew his swords and faced the intruder menacingly. Usopp shrieked and hid behind a barrel and Chopper joined him not to long after. Franky readied his left arm as Brooke drew his shikomizue. Robin just smiled, knowing that if this woman had wanted to attack, she would have done so already.

"Yo." She greeted completely deadpanned. Her brown hair was tied back in simple ponytail. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt with average blue jeans and sandals. Everything about her, from her slightly tanned skin to her green eyes, screamed average.

"What are you doing here? And what do you mean we're not gonna see them again?!" Luffy shouted.

"Relax; I'm not here to fight you." She said as she jumped down from her position.

"Like hell! Why're you here?" Zoro asked.

"So demanding. I was just about to tell you that."

"So why didn't you?!"

"Well, you started shouting at me. Kinda hard to explain things when you're not listening."

Zoro's face turned red, but he didn't say anything more.

"It seems you have the floor, stranger-san." Robin said.

"Well, my name's Psi D. Luna. I'm here to inform you that your chef and your navigator are no longer in this era."

* * *

**Ug, yes. I went for the cliche and she's a D. You can shoot me now.**

**And yes, when I can't think of names for my lackeys, I steal them from other sources. You can shoot me again.  
**


	3. There's a Reason the Tables are Numbered

**I've decided to try and make updates on this once a week either late Sunday or early Monday. Let's see how long I can keep to that schedule. *Is busy in the fall.***

**On another note, this chapter is a bit shorter than the last one. I blame it on last chapter being an introduction and this one being mostly transition. Plus the next best possible place to end it would have made this one _really_ long.**

**Enjoy.**

**Reviews: **

**ColorPearl: **Yes, I do that sometimes. Thank you! I rather enjoyed them myself. It is, though I don't know why. Stupid Odz or Oars or whatever his name is. Really? Maybe because the prologue feature just Sanji reflecting on his own experiences? It's probably my fail as a writer though.

**dandy wonderous: **It almost did. Luckily I have fun writing Horace's or else I would have snapped like a twig. :P *High fives back* Yeah, we should make a club or something. ;) FYI, I went back and put in the exclamation points just so it would say Panic! True Story. Awesome, that's what! (hopefully).

**Abra Cadaverous: ***gets shot.* Well, if you mean suckish as in it sucks, then I'd have to disagree and say no, it is awesome, but if you mean suckish as in it sucks you in, why yes, yes it does. :P Woot! But seriously, like anyone is going to be suprised by that. :D And here it is!

**One Piece is not mine. Not now, not ever.**

* * *

"_Can't believes… gets mads…"_

"_Could not…just leave…better…this way…"_

Sanji didn't know exactly where he was, just that he was moving very fast. He never could quite make it back into full consciousness, but he could still recognize the brothers' voices arguing as he drifted in and out of it.

"_You takes…blames…dere's a problems…"_

"_Will not…teamwork and all…"_

The movement ceased suddenly and Sanji felt himself hit what he assumed to be a seat of some kind. _Am I on a train?_ He thought vaguely before he passed out again.

"_Idiots!...Pirate King…extra baggage…slow us down!"_

Sanji's heart skipped a beat when his muggy mind interpreted this new voice to be female.

"…_no choice…forced himself through…"_

The distinct sound of a very hard slap was enough to force Sanji to open his eyes.

Horace was on the ground. His hat had fallen off his head and he was covering up a quickly forming hand shaped bruise on his cheek. Jasper was a small ways behind him, trembling with either anger at his brother's treatment or fear of the person who caused it. Said person was an older woman with stark black hair, equally dark eyes, and pale skin. She was wearing a short black skirt, matching high heel boots and a black, low-cut blouse and was towering over Horace with her hand still raised. A figure that Sanji was able to make out as a small girl wrapped in a hooded cloak was cowering behind her.

The room they were in was big and circular. The first floor, the one everyone was on, had a white, marble floor with six white Roman columns holding up the second floor, which had a black railing surrounding it and was too dark for Sanji to see anything else up there. Light streamed down to the first floor from a giant skylight in the ceiling and three opaque windows from in between every other column. The other spaces were filled with massive wooden doors that were all bolted shut at this time.

He was positioned sitting upright against one of the columns, while his kidnappers were talking in the middle of the room. A quick glance around told Sanji that Nami was nowhere to be found, his wrists were tied tightly behind his back, and his legs were chained.

"Don't you dare try to cover up your incompetence!" The lady shrieked. _Not shrieked, _Sanji thought, _beautiful ladies such as her don't shriek. More like, said forcefully. I'm sure whatever she would rather have had them do is much better than_-

"You should have just killed him then and there if he forced himself through!" _On second thought, shrieked works._

"I-I'm sorry," the cloaked girl said. "I-it's really my f-fault for not closing the p-portal quickly enough…"

The woman's demeanor took a complete 180 as she turned and knelt down to talk to the girl face to face. "Sweetie, it isn't your fault at all. Don't try to cover up those idiots' blundering."

"D-don't hurt them…"

She gave the girl a sweet smile before answering, "Honey, you know that blunders need to be punished. You can go to your room if you don't want to watch."

The girl shivered, but nodded and turned to leave.

"And if you could be a dear and bring our newest guest something to eat and drink…" the girl stiffened, but nodded again and made her way through the door across the room from where Sanji was.

"As for you two…" her words fell short as her gaze locked with Sanji's glare. Jasper and Horace turned to see what had diverted their leader's attention.

"Well, look who's awake." She shot a glare at her minions before sauntering on over to Sanji. "How're you feeling, sunshine?"

"To be honest, I've been better. You drag a guy to the future and then just leave him around?" He shrugged as much as his bound wrists would allow. "Not much for manners, are we?"

She smirked. "Feeling a bit cheeky, aren't we sunshine? Well, I'll soon cure you of that, Pirate King's Right Foot or not." She shoved her heeled foot into Sanji's lower abdomen. "Besides, I only really wanted your pretty little navigator anyway; you are just so much extra baggage."

At this, his glare intensified. "Where's Nami-san?"

She chuckled and slapped his cheek lightly. "Wouldn't you like to know? Don't worry; I'll take good care of her. I have every intention of returning her in one piece." She turned to face her subordinates. "As for you two…" she paused, then smirked. "Why don't you escort Sunshine here to the Ghost Ship for me?"

Their faces paled. "Surely you will be reasonable, Madame. After all, the Ghost Ship…it does not take too kindly to people just randomly boarding it…"

"We'll gets killed! We'll gets maimed, and beatens, and killed!"

Their boss stepped away from Sanji to properly glare at the brothers. "Well, think of it this way boys: if you drop him off on the Ghost Ship then run like hell, there is a chance you _won't _get maimed, beaten, and killed. However, if you choose _not_ to, I can guarantee that is what will happen."

"It's going to take more than a dinky little ship with a bad history to keep me from kicking your gorgeous ass." Sanji replied.

She turned her attention back to her captive. "Enough with your empty threats, Sunshine, I know you don't kick women." She said, patting his head. "As for the 'bad history' of the 'dinky ship' in the harbor not too far from here, it's not so much of an oral tale as a reason for all of the dead bodies that turn up whenever someone tries to move the worthless thing to another location. Not even to destroy it; some of the alleged victims wanted to move it to a proper dock to try and restore it. So while it may not be the work of actual ghosts, simply leaving you on the ship will be a creative enough way to kill you."

"Even if you do manage to kill me, which you won't, I'm not dying that easily, do you really think Luffy's not going to avenge my death or take back Nami-san?"

Her gaze hardened as she grabbed Sanji's chin roughly. "I am more than prepared to meet Mr. Pirate King should he choose to chase me through time."

"Don't worry, Mademoiselle, he _will_ come. He's stubborn like that. As for your shitty plans," he smirked and met her gaze head on, "I hope you haven't kidded yourself into believing they actually mean shit in the face of my captain."

His captor's death glare went up a notch as she stepped back and slammed her foot into his stomach. "Such a vulgar mouth. If all pirates were like this, then it's a good thing they've been taken care of." She turned on her heel and made her way out through the door the little girl left in before, shouting "Blindfold him!" over her shoulder.

"A bit kinky today aren't we?"

"Gag him too. I've grown tired of his lip!"

* * *

"Wait, what?" was all Luffy could say after hearing Luna's explanation. They had moved their discussion to the island behind them at the strange woman's request.

"Well, my name is Luna, and you're friends are no longer-"

"Don't explain it again using the same words...he'll never get it." Usopp said. "Listen, Luffy, Sanji and Nami have been kidnapped."

"Eh?! No way! Who did it, I'll kick their ass!"

"The problem is the kidnapper took them into the future."

"What?! Then how am I supposed to get them back!!"

"That's the point; you're not supposed to."

"That bastard…not playing fair…"

"But, Luna here has eaten the Time Time fruit and can bring us to the future."

"Oh, so we can get them back?"

"Yeah, that's the plan."

"So, what's the problem again?"

"The problem arises," Robin interrupted, "when Luna can only bring a maximum of four people through time with her."

"Oh, so only me, Zoro, and two other people can go?"

"Not if you want to bring those idiots back." Zoro added. "The four people rule applies both ways, so if we want them to come back with us, only you and me can go."

"You might as well bring the two extra people though." Luna said. "The future is a confusing place. Two out of every three people I bring there end up dying just because they don't understand it."

"Honestly, I don't think Strawhat understands this time period very well." Franky stated.

"True, Luffy-san should be quite capable no matter what time period he's in." Brooke added.

"So, me and Zoro and Luna are going to the future?" Luffy asked.

"Seems that way." Usopp answered. "I'd offer to go myself, after all, I am a time traveling expert, but due to an incident that I am forbidden to speak about, I'm not allowed to time travel anymore."

"Eh?! Really?! What happened?" Chopper asked excitedly.

"Well, the denizens of the future tell tales of my bravery and they knew that it was only I who could vanquish the evil beast that was destroying…"

As Usopp prattled on to Chopper, everyone else was focusing on the problem at hand.

"I wonder though, Luna-san," Robin said innocently, "why are you so eager to help us?"

She tilted her head to the side. "I'm…not sure what you mean."

Robin smiled her mysterious smile. "Well, it is certainly convenient for us that just when our friends are kidnapped through time, someone wielding the ability to time travel shows up and offers to help."

She shrugged nonchalantly. "I see people in trouble, I help them. Is that so wrong?"

"No, by its self, it is not." Robin politely replied. "However, from all of the stories I have heard about the user of the Time Time fruit, she rather manipulative and just uses people for her own gain."

"Isn't that a bit hypocritical of you, Demon Child-san?" Luna responded just as politely.

"Oh burn." Franky felt the need to add.

"I suppose," Robin said, "but, I like this family here, and I would rather not have it destroyed by someone like you."

Luna seemed taken aback by that. The rest of the crew alternated between looking shocked at Robin's outburst and defiantly at their uninvited guest, save Luffy, who just stood there grinning like an idiot. The silence between them grew longer and more awkward until Brooke decided to break it.

"Is there going to be a cat fight now? Because I for one would not object."

Luffy started looking around for the cats, Chopper helped him, Zoro smirked, Franky nodded sagely in agreement, and Usopp muttered something about not being able to get away with that if Nami were still here. Luna shot him a glare before replacing it with a look that said, 'now why would you say that,' while Robin's response was a simple, "Dos Fleur: Spin."

"Yohoho! My head is spinning so fast my eyes will fly out. But, I have no eyes!!"

"Robin," Luffy said seriously, turning to her after concluding that there were no cats onboard. "Don't worry. We'll get Sanji and Nami back easy. I won't let anyone tear us apart."

"Neither will I." Zoro said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm afraid you're stuck with us forever."

She chuckled at that. "You know, I don't think I mind very much."

"So," Luna said to get everyone back on track, "Just you two then?"

"Yup!" Luffy said giant grin plastered on his face.

"Alright then." She formed two Ls with her hand placed them up and down in front of her and shouted "Time Forward," while moving her hands apart. A tearing sound cut through the air, shortly followed by a metallic taste and a giant tear appearing where Luna had moved her fingers. On the other side of the tear they could see the rest of the Nothing Isle's first island but at the crack of noon. "After you gentlemen," she said with a sweeping motion of her arm.

Luffy and Zoro stepped through into the future.

* * *

Sanji was peeved.

Not only had those shitheads gagged and blindfolded him in the most painful way they could think of, they had dropped him off in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where Nami-san was, and apparently had given him something that made his legs unable to work.

He spent the better part of five minutes cursing them in his head and thinking of all of the things he was going to do to them as soon as his legs were able to move again and he hunted them down. They had fled shortly after ditching him in fear of the violent ghosts.

_This is stupid, _he thought, _there's no such thing as ghosts anyway_.

It was then that Sanji felt a pair of cold hands on the back of his neck.


	4. You Just Haven't Thought of it Yet

**And here's Chapter 3! Stuff was supposed to happen in this chapter, but it doesn't. Stuff will happen next time though, I promise. **

**For those of you who will wonder: Bassia = summer cypress. Yey random word generators! **

**Enjoy.**

**Reviews:**

**Abra Cadaverous: **Yeah, I am. Don't judge. It's practically the only given in the whole series. XP W-what are you going on about there? Take this half a cookie and carry on your merry way you. Thank you!

**Krentenbol: **Thank you very much! I'm sorry, they're so fun to end with though! I'll try to keep with my schedule though, so you only have to wait a week. Thanks, I try sometimes. :P I'm not sure...wait, yes I do! We'll find out soon (like this chapter...).

**dandy wonderous: **Rest assured, I am completly incapable of killing off Sanji. Weird, must be psychic or something. :D Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying my random. Yeah I did, and it is XP I was going to use the full title, but there was the whole character limit thing going on. :( But now I have a title for this chapter too! It's probably the mention of cigarettes and pure awesome, at least that's what makes me think of him when I hear it...

**ColourPearl: **I'm glad I made your day. Me too, they're fun to write. :D You can't fail at being a reader...unless you can't read, which I assume you can since you've read and review this. Aw, thanks for that! And here is your update!

**Sora Tayuya: ***is guilty.* House was on when I was thinking of names for them and I was reminded that Hugh Laurie played Jasper (or was it Hoarce...) in the live action version so I just went with that.

**One Piece can't be mine, because if I can't write a fight scene, how am I supposed to draw an epic war?**

* * *

Nami had woken up to darkness. After recalling what had happened, she decided to do some 'exploring' of sorts. As it turned out, she was looked in a rather small room with nothing but the bed she was lying on in one corner and one window that looked out to a brick wall about five stories up over a tight alleyway. The window was locked, however, so not only could Nami not see any of the surrounding area, but her options of escape had decreased.

The young navigator was messing with the locks on the window when a small voice behind her made her stop.

"You…probably shouldn't be doing that…"

She turned around to find herself faced with a small girl wrapped in a cloak carefully balancing a tray with soup, a sandwich, and some juice on it.

"Really? And why shouldn't I?"

"If you escape, then my boss wouldn't be very happy."

"Well, maybe I don't want your boss to be happy."

The girl placed the tray of food down on the bed. "Please trust me on this; you want my boss happy."

Nami felt a surge of pity for the girl, but quickly suppressed it while the girl continued, "Really, she just needs your help with something…she'll come and talk to you soon…"

"Kidnapping isn't the most socially acceptable way to ask for help."

"No, but it's one of the things she does best." She turned to face the pirate. "Is there anything else you need?"

"The keys to the room would be nice."

"…food-wise?"

Nami shook her head. The girl went to the door to leave, only to have it opened forcefully before her by another woman.

"Oh, there you are love." She said to the girl. "What are you still doing up here?"

"I-I was just leaving…"

"Oh, well, don't let me stop you then." She stepped aside and the girl took the opportunity to hurry out of the room. Alone with Nami, she turned her attention to the Strawhat as she closed and lock the door behind her. "Cat-burglar Nami, I presume?"

"It's really only polite to at least know the name of the people you kidnap."

She sighed. "Lackeys aren't known for their reliability. Sometimes you tell them to kidnap one person and they bring you someone completely different. But seriously, how are you?"

"You take me away from my friends and then ask about my well being?"

"Sorry about that. I just really needed to talk to you." The woman made her way to the bed and moved the tray to sit down, patting the spot next to her to indicate that Nami should join her. The navigator chose to remain stubbornly standing.

"And you think the best way is to lock me up?"

"Sorry about that too; this is the only room available at the moment. I'll work on getting you something better though. Do you want to eat something before we talk?" She said as offered her the food.

"What do you want with me?"

"Want to get straight to the point huh? That saves us some time then." She put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands as she looked the red-head right in the eyes. "There is a place I need to get to. Unfortunately, no one alive knows how to get there. As such, I decided to bring in someone who does."

"Clearly you made the right choice. I am, after all, the best." Nami allowed herself a smirk. "Where do you need to go? And what's in it for me?"

The lady smiled. "You've been there before, or rather, you'll be there eventually. It's a small island not far from Raftel, but almost as difficult to get to. As for you, don't think I'm assuming you to do this for free…"

Nami's eyes immediately became beli signs. "How much are we talking here?"

"How much do you want?"

The beli signs brightened to unfathomable levels. She was already calculating just how much this woman was willing to fork over before she realized something was off.

"Wait, where's Sanji?"

The woman blinked. "Well, I'm sure it's three o'clock somewhere*…"

"No, my friend. He was with me when your men took me away."

"They only brought you back."

"Yes, but he would have followed them in order to get me back."

"I highly doubt it. In case you haven't noticed, we've taken you through time."

"No…he'd chase me down no matter what."

"Then I don't know what happened to him, but I haven't seen him."

That's when it hit her. As someone who used to go around manipulating people, Nami could easily tell when someone was trying to take advantage of her. Now the orange haired girl was not only worried about her friend, she was also in doubt of whether there was actually any money at all.

"Well, I'm a bit worried about him; he's a bit of an idiot you see, so I'd really like a confirmation on his wellbeing before I negotiate further with you. You understand, right?"

The black haired women gained a dark expression, understanding perfectly Nami's hidden meaning.

_"You've hurt my friend. The answer's no."_

"If that's the way you want it, then I shall do my best to see what has happened to him." She got up and made her way to the door. After pulling it open and stepping outside, she looked back over her shoulder and added, "Oh, and the room changing process might also be a little complicated, so it could take a while…you understand, right?" And with that she left Nami alone in the room.

She turned back to face the window, contemplating the hidden meaning behind the woman's words.

_"Tread carefully, you _are_ at my mercy."_

* * *

"There's nothing here." Luffy said matter of factly.

"Of course not stupid, we're still on the Nothing Isles." Zoro responded.

"Why'd you bring us to exactly where we were before?" Luffy asked.

"Time doesn't equal space, Luffy," Usopp replied. "She can take us through time, but not through space."

"…I don't get it."

"She can't shrink down distances." He tried again.

"…I don't get it."

"It's like another direction. You know how you can go left and right, right? Well Luna can also go forward and backward. It's like how you can't go left and right at the same time."

"Oh, so it's a mystery. Thanks for explaining Usopp." He grinned before doing a double take. "What?! Usopp?! How did you get here?!?"

"Franky pushed me!"

"Stupid, now how are we supposed to get the love-cook and the money witch back?" Zoro asked.

"It should be fine. Like I said one or more of you are probably going to die anyway, so Sanji and Nami can just take that person's spot." Luna replied.

"None of us are going to die," Luffy said, "my friends are strong. We'll deal with that when we deal with it."

"If there's nothing here," Usopp noticed, "how are we supposed to leave this island to look for them?"

"The Sea Train should be stopping here soon."

"The Sea Train doesn't stop here." Zoro stated.

"Correction: The Sea Train _didn't_ stop here. It does now."

"Since when?"

"Since twenty years ago when someone realized that some people would like to go to a place where nothing happens."

"You know, technically that means _something_ is happening here." Usopp pointed out.

"Yeah, but the Every Now And Then The Sea Train Comes Isles doesn't have the same ring to it."

"I don't feel so good..." Usopp said before sitting down.

"Ack! It must be your I-Can't-Travel-Through-Time sickness acting up!" Luffy said before joining his friend on the ground. "Where's Chopper when you need him? I've caught it to."

"Don't worry, it's just your time trying to pull you back. As soon as you adjust to this era, you'll feel better." Luna answered.

"How come you don't feel sick?" Usopp asked.

"I travel through time all the time…I'm used to it."

"What about Zoro?" Luffy asked, "Why isn't he sick?"

"I don't get sick." was the man's simple reply.

"You don't feel light-headed or sick to your stomach at all?" Luna asked.

"That's just the blood loss."

"You haven't lost any blood yet…" Usopp muttered.

"Does anyone know where we're going anyway?" Zoro asked. "If they were taken through time, then they should have ended up here."

"They probably got on the Sea Train." Usopp suggested. "But after that, who knows where they went."

"Water 7." Luna said.

Usopp blinked. Luffy stood up and shouted "To Water 7!" before collapsing back to the ground. Zoro arched his eyebrow.

"You seem to know exactly where they went…"

"As a matter of fact, I do." She looked the demon pirate hunter in the eye. "Zoro-san, you are about a hundred years ahead of everything you've ever known. On top of that, you are also looking for your friends who have been taken by people you don't for reasons you can't even begin to guess at. Is this really the best time to doubt the only guide/ride home you have?"

"I've found that it is always a good time to doubt a complete stranger with mysterious motives."

She smirked at that. "That attitude might just keep you alive in this era. I'll save you some time and effort by informing you, however, it is in my best interests to keep you help you guys get your chef and navigator back, so rest assured, I'm not here to betray you. I really am just trying to help."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"She said she's going to help us, so she's going to help us." Luffy decided to add as he jumped to his feet. "It's as simple as that."

"Nothing is ever as simple as it is in that little world of yours, captain."

"Something's coming!" Usopp shouted as he stood up too.

The Sea Train, which hadn't changed appearances at all since the Strawhats last saw it save for adding more carts, was heading towards the island at a break neck speed. The four of them hurried on over to the station platform and waited as the massive train came to a complete stop. A conductor in a neatly pressed grey uniform jumped off the train and without missing a beat asked the group, "Where to?"

Three pairs of eyes moved to look at Luffy, who simply said, "Water 7, of course."

* * *

Sanji froze when he felt the hands on him. They were cold as ice, slowly creeping up until they reached the gag and untied it. He wasted no time in spitting it out and shouting, "Shithead! What the hell do you think you're doing to me back there?! You better untie me right now or-" the rest of his threat was cut off by a pair of cold arms wrapping around his midsection.

"Sanji!" said a voice that Sanji knew but couldn't recognize.

"W-who are you? Untie me damnit!"

"Right, sorry." A few moments later his hands were untied and his legs were unchained. The voice had let him deal with the blindfold himself.

When he had removed it, the chef found himself staring at a small figure wearing a red cloak that admitted a kind of ghostly aura, yet Sanji was sure she wasn't a ghost, at least not in the traditional sense. She was carrying a hammer, and was beaming at him as if she hadn't been this happy in ages. As the blonde gripped the grass deck below him, he understood what he was staring at.

"Sunny!"

Sunny's Klabautermann grinned even wider if that was possible and lunged to hug him again. Sanji allowed it, and squeezed back. He took this opportunity to look around the deck.

All in all, it wasn't much different from the Thousand Sunny Sanji knew, except much older. The grass deck they were currently on was dead, the trees and swing missing, the slide was collapsed. He glanced upward to see that the crow's nest was completely gone as was the sail, but the mast itself remained perfectly intact.

"Sunny…what happened?"

"I don't know…you were just brought here." She muttered into his chest.

"Not that. Where is everyone? Why are you here?"

She pulled back a bit to look at him. "I haven't seen anyone in about a hundred years. I'm here because Franky left me here, so here is where I'll stay."

Sanji blinked as he took in the news. _So…that rip from before…_He silently cursed those bastards for what seemed like the millionth time. "So, that makes you this 'Ghost Ship' I've heard so much?"

If it was possible for a Klabautermann to blush, Sanji was sure that is what Sunny would be doing right now. "I don't kill everyone…"

"But you kill some of them?" He took her silence as a yes. "Why?"

"Because they try to move me. Franky left me here, so here is where I'll stay." She repeated.

"If it's really been a hundred years though…"

"No!" She stepped back. "It's just…" she sighed and stared at the deck. "He's the one who built me and sailed on me and fixed me and he decided to leave me here. It just seems wrong if I left."

He smiled kindly at her. "I understand." She looked up at him. "But, where exactly is here?"

"Outside Old Water 7." She replied. "I guess it would be the equivalent of where the Franky House used to stand."

"Do you know where the guys who brought me here went? They still have Nami-san…"

"Jasper and Horace? They often leave people here who their boss wants dead. I usually let them go though." She shook her head thoughtfully. "Anyway, they probably went back to their boss's place in New Water 7. If they have Nami, then she'll be there too."

"And that would be…"

"It's…hard to explain. You remember what used to be the Galley-La docks?" Sanji nodded. "Well, Iceburg managed to turn that into a giant ship and when people began to migrate there to escape Aqua Laguna, it became the New Water 7."

"So where is it?" She shrugged.

"It's a ship, so it's constantly moving around. The Sea Train can always get to it though."

"So, if I just get on the Sea Train, it'll drop me off at the New Water 7." Sunny nodded. "Then what are we sitting around here for? Let's go!" Sanji stood up only to collapse back down as his leg refused to support the rest of his body.

"Are you alright?" Sunny asked worriedly.

"My legs aren't working…"

"They probably gave you some Bassia."

He blinked. "Bassia?"

"It's this weird drug that Vegapunk IV came up with. It tricks your brain into being unable to use your primary weapon for a period of time. It'll wear off eventually."

"But I need to get to Nami-san now! We can't afford to waste any more time while they're doing who knows what to her."

"Just wait a bit…" Sanji ignored her and forced himself to stand up. His legs shakily supported him this time and he tentatively took a step forward.

"What good are you going to be if you can barely stand?" She tried again.

"Not sure." The young chef replied, "But I need to get her back." He jumped off the deck and landed on the boardwalk next to the ship. The sudden shock forced him to his knees. "You coming?" Sanji asked after he pulled himself together.

Sunny shook her head from the railing. "I…can't go very far from the ship. Only about a few feet or so."

"Then I'll just have to bring Nami-san back here." He turned and started walking towards the town.

"Please be careful…" Sunny whispered after him.

* * *

***This is a (bad) pun with Sanji's name. In japanese, it literally means 'three o'clock' (san=3, ji=o'clock). Sanji also means 'disaster' in japanese, so maybe that's why Oda's always picking on him._**


	5. Greengrass and Hightides Forever

**Welcome to the fourth chapter of my little story here! This week, Luna explains somethings no one cares about, Nami bonds with a henchchild, Sanji gets beaten up by cowboys, and 3 realizes that she can't write cowboy dialect and therefore fails as an American.**

**Also, I might just stick with the whole 'random-song-as-chapter-title-thing' and see where that gets me. No one's sued yet anyway...  
**

**Even so enjoy it anyway!**

**Reviews:**

**ColourPearl: **Yup! I happen to enojy Panic! in a way that most certainly does_ not_ borderline unhealthy. At least I haven't gotten a restarining order yet. XP Thanks, I'm glad you like it so much! Everytime I see you've reviewd, I squeal too!

**Sora Tayuya: **Thanks! I don't really get it much either (I doubt anyone really does). Actually I've had a few bumps in the plot that have been caused by the time traveling thing, but hopefully I've got them all smoothed out. ^_^U Gah! I'm sorry! Or am I? Oh, It would probably continue...it would just never end. O_O

**Abra Cadaverous: **And with that, my goal is accomplished! That and plot devices, of course. :P Or an island feakishly similar to Raftel because the authoress doesn't want to quite go there *is cheating*. It does in my story! Any medical problem Zoro ever has could be attributed to his loss of blood. Silly Zoro. I know! I loved Water 7! And Iceburg! My ego thanks you for that. No problem, that's what Japanese/English dictonaries are for! Yes, poor Sanji. :'( Thank you very much!

**dandy wonderous: **As long as everything goes according to plan (blatant Mr. Prince reference). I'm starting to think Panic! are closet One Piece fans. _ I know! I love it! Anyway...yeah, she would. And he did. Because they're in love! (in my mind anyway...) They say only idiots never get sick...I don't know who they are or if they are a reliable source, but just saying. XP Yeah, those Vegapunks really know there stuff. :P Thank you! And here you go!

**One Piece: It's not mine!**

* * *

"Where do you think you're going with those?" The conductor of the Sea Train asked with an air of importance that was clearly self-imposed.

"Hm? What d'ya mean?" Zoro asked.

"Those swords." He waved vaguely at the three swords strapped to Zoro's waist. "Where do you think you're going with _those_?"

"On the train." The swordsman rolled his eyes.

"Certainly not _my _train. No weapons allowed here." Usopp carefully moved his bag behind his back.

"That's stupid, I'm not going to hurt anyone." He proceeded to walk onto the train but was stopped when the conductor got in his way.

"Right, like I'm going to believe _that_. You're violating the World Government's Single Sword Mandate as it is! I'm cutting you a huge break here by letting you leave them behind!"

"Single what now? Look I can't just leave them behind, so let me on the train!" Zoro flicked Wado about an inch out of her sheath with a threatening look in his eye. The conductor visibly flinched but stood his ground.

"Time Out." Luna shouted. The next thing Zoro knew his swords and Luffy's hat were missing and Luna was standing right in front of him.

"I really don't know what you're getting so worked up about, Conductor-san. My friends here don't have any weapons on them."

"What are you talking about? The green-guy has three…" his statement faltered off when he looked down at Zoro's waist to find the swords missing.

"But…I could have sworn…"

"He's clearly not carrying anything, so can we get on now please?"

"O-of course." He stepped aside and let the four of them on.

"My swords better be on this train or I swear to god…" Zoro muttered under his breath.

"You should relax more. It's better for your heart." Luna replied as she led them into an empty car near the back of the train. She hit the overhead compartment as she took a seat near the middle. "I put your swords and Luffy's hat in here. I recommend you don't touch them until we're ready to disembark."

"You didn't even notice your hat was missing?" Usopp asked Luffy as they took the seats across from Luna.

"No, Luna told me she was going to try something and that I should just trust her, so I did."

"So, there a reason for stealing our stuff?" Zoro asked as he sat down next to Luna.

"Of course. Everything I do has a purpose."

"Feel like telling us what that purpose is?"

"Only if you feel like listening…"

* * *

Sanji stumbled for about the umpteenth time and caught himself on a nearby wall. It was weird, to say the least, wandering through streets he had walked down only a few months before that were full of bustling businesses and lively townsfolk and now were only grim reminds of the former grandeur that the city possessed.

Old Water 7 was a depressing city; really nothing more than a reminder to anyone who lived in it that there were better things out there. Aqua Laguna had ripped it apart so many times that all that remained was the barest of building's skeletons. Those who could not afford to move on to Neo Water 7 were forced to scrape together whatever food they could find and huddle in whatever meager shelter the remains of the buildings could provide. Needless to say, gang activity ruled the town.

Sanji, however, did not know nor care about any of this as he stumbled through the city, making his way to the Blue Station, mind solely focused on getting Nami back.

So when he stumbled down a dead end alleyway, he didn't really hear the footsteps sneaking up behind him until he turned around to face them.

"Well lookie here! We got ourselves a bon-ee-fied suit if I'd ever seen one." The young man who Sanji assumed to be the leader tipped his ridiculously over-sized cowboy hat.

"I'm not really in the mood for kicking your asses right now. Can we schedule this for another day?" The pirate said as he leaned back against the wall.

"I dunno, what d'y'all reckon?" He looked over his shoulder at the twenty or so guys that backed him up. "Should we just let him just mosey on outta here after barge'n in on our turf all rude-like n'such?" The smirks and drawing of pistols were all the response he needed.

He lit a cigarette and glanced around the alley for anything he could use to escape. "I _really_ don't have time to play with you shitheads, so if you could just step aside…"

"Heh, like we'd a-let that happen. This here'd be belonging to the Cotton-Eye Gang; the largest in ye Old Water 7. I reckon you ain't got a chance out of this one bucko. Name's Joe, jus' so ya know what ta call that there shadow that's a-gonna pop up in yer dreams later." He said drawing his own pistol.

Sanji rolled his eyes. "Big words coming from a bratty shithead. Well, if you'd excuse me gentlemen, I've got a lady to save." With that he lunged towards a stack of crates to his right and managed to kick them down on the unsuspecting gang and bolted out of the alley. _Maybe the drug's left my system,_ he thought just as he tripped and face-planted only a few feet from the exit.

Joe and some of the others managed to recover from the crates and surrounded him. "That all ya got then?" He kicked Sanji over and crouched down to point his gun under the blonde's chin. "Gotta say, I'm a tad diss-o-poin-ee-ted." He cocked the gun. "Any last words Mee-ster Suit?"

Sanji searched his mind for the wittiest phrase he could think of, but someone beat him to it.

"_Gavotte Bond en Avant_!"

* * *

"So spill." Zoro said, leaning back against the seat. "What couldn't you tell us before?"

Luna popped one of the complementary cherries into her mouth. "'Bout what now?"

The swordsman's eyebrow twitched violently. "'Bout why you felt the need to steal our stuff!"

"Oh, yeah. Wanted to mention this before, but never got the chance." She swallowed the cherry and sat up. "As you may have already figured out, quite some time has passed-"

"No shit, thanks for the explanation." Zoro scowled.

"If you would like to know what's going on, Zoro-san, it would be in your _best_ interest to refrain from talking, please and thank you." Zoro put his hands up in mock defeat and shut up.

"_Any_way, as I was saying, quite some time has passed…about a hundred years or so if I were to guesstimate. More accurately, I suppose, it's been about a hundred years since Monkey D. 'Straw Hat' Luffy was declared the Second Pirate King."

"Wow really? When did that happen?" Usopp asked.

"About a hundred years ago, Usopp. Don't you listen?" Luffy reprimanded his friend.

"Yeah…but…you're one to tell me to listen." He muttered.

"After the Second Pirate King's alleged death and the supposed deaths of the rest of his crew (don't even bother asking me for details because they _are_ really vague…even if you were there) the World Government realized that it needed to take more severe actions to prevent yet another Pirate King from emerging."

"Such as banning three swords and straw hats?" Zoro asked skeptically.

"Not at first…in the beginning it was just ruthless hunting down and treatment of pirates. Soon that branched out to children of pirates, even if they were ditched by their pirate parents and grew up among civilians."

"Hee, you'd be dead Usopp, 'cause your Dad's a pirate." Luffy said.

"You'd be dead too!" Usopp responded.

"My parents ain't pirates."

"Eventually it got to the point where you'd be tossed in jail if someone even suspected you to be connected to a pirate." Luna continued. "It was pretty ridiculous."

"So, Alabasta…" Zoro asked in his roundabout way.

She sighed. "Nothing could ever be conclusively proven in the case against Alabasta. People who did talk clearly didn't know anything, and people who knew anything didn't talk, so the World Government couldn't official do anything to the country. It did lose a lot of influence and power because of the whole fiasco though, and has been slowly in an economic collapse that still continues to this day. The lack of compassion coming from the Royal Family isn't helping matters much either."

"Oi, don't talk about Vivi like that!" Luffy stated. "She's-"

"Probably the last good ruler that country had." Luna finished. "She did her best with what she had. Yeah, her being friends with you probably screwed her country, but she's not the one to blame here. At least I don't think so; I'm not a historian. This type of thing is best left to people like your Nico Robin."

"But people wouldn't just sit there and let the World Government do all these things to innocent people." Usopp said, getting back to the point.

"Says who?"

"The Revolutionaries for one."

"Dealt with already."

"What do you mean-"

"They've been dealt with at this point. Besides people were willing to let the World Government go crazy if it meant that piracy would be dealt with once and for all. Never underestimate people's need for safety."

"So that's what happened, isn't it?" Zoro said solemnly. "Everyone just let the Word Government do what they said was necessary in order to bring about peace?"

"Basically. Things like registering all the Devil Fruit users and forcing them to work for the government and controlling which ships can leave the harbor were written off as 'necessary' while everyone who's heard of the Legends of Old knows why you can only carry one sword and why it is illegal to possess a slingshot but pistols are perfectly alright."

"A ban on slingshots? That's almost as ridiculous as a ban on straw hats!" Usopp exclaimed.

"To be fair, it's not really a ban on straw hats. It's more of a taboo."

"It's still crazy." He settled back into his seat.

"Paranoid people do crazy things."

"If all fruit users have to work for the government…" Luffy pondered, "And you're a fruit user…"

"I wasn't born in this era. For the record though, I am in the registry. They can't catch me though. There's I think three fruit users that are still outside government control. A lot of effort is being put forth into catching them too; it's actually pretty funny."

"And what's this 'Legends of Old' thing you were talking about before?" Zoro asked.

"Why, you guys of course."

The car fell into a humble silence at her words only to be broken a few minutes later when the train stopped by a voice.

"_Now arriving at Neo Water 7's Neon Blue Station. Neo Water 7's Neon Blue Station._"

* * *

Nami was just about fed up with the stupid bars on the windows. No matter what she tried they wouldn't even budge. At this point she was pretty sure nothing short of lightening would break them. Damn Usopp for taking away her Climatact…

The navigator's musings were cut short by a small cough from behind her. She turned around to see the young girl carrying a new tray of the same food.

"Um…I brought food…"

Nami took the tray from her and sat down on the bed. "Thanks." The girl nodded and made her way to the door. "You know," Nami called after her, causing her to stop, "you seem like a nice kid. I don't know why you're working for a woman like that."

"You don't understand yet." The girl started trembling. "You don't know…"

The young pirate shook her head. "You know, when I was about your age I was forced to work for some pretty mean pirates." The girl slowly turned to face her.

"Really?"

"Yup." Nami patted the space next to her on the bed and the girl climbed up and sat next to her. She offered her half of her sandwich, which she politely declined. "They killed my mother too, but they forced me to make maps for them for ten years."

"But…you got out."

"Well, one day I met this kid named Monkey D. Luffy. He and his crazy friends defeated the pirates and ended up saving me."

"And yet you decided to become a pirate anyway? Even after all of that?"

The orange-haired girl shrugged. "I guess it's hard to imagine, but it'll make sense when you meet Luffy."

"I guess. It's nice that you were saved by Luffy."

"You know," Nami smiled at the girl, "him and the rest of the crew are probably on their way here right now. We could save you too, if you want."

She lowered her head dejectedly. "No, no one's going to get me out of this."

"I used to think that too you know."

"This…is completely different. Your Luffy-san will have enough trouble getting you out of here alive. It will be easier on everyone if you just do what she says." She jumped off the bed and went to the door. "I was told to tell you," she said just before she left, "that we'll be leaving soon, so you should get ready for that." With that she closed and locked the door, leaving Nami once again by herself in a locked room.

* * *

The members of the Cotton-Eye Gang flew every which way, unconscious before they hit the ground. Sanji sat up and tried to get back on his feet, but the tip of a sword replace the pistol that was there moments before prevented him from such a task.

"Who exactly do you think you are?" the menacing voice behind the sword said. This new intruder's upper body was mostly hidden in shadow, but the polished shoes and boney hand holding the shikomizue were more than enough for Sanji to figure out who it was.

He calmly took a drag from his cigarette. "Me? Blackleg Sanji: Chef of the Strawhat Pirates. Who exactly do you think you are, shitty skeleton, threatening your crewmates like that?"

The visible hand shook slightly as Brooke lowered his weapon and stepped out of the shadows. Even after a hundred years, he still looked exactly like how Sanji last saw him, afro and all.

"S-sanji-san…it really is you…" The chef saw tears start to form in his friend's eye sockets before he dropped to his knees and pulled him into a fierce hug.

"What are you doing here…no, better yet, how can you possibly be here, Sanji-san?"

"Nami-san was taken…followed her…can't breathe Brooke…"

"Ah, sorry." He let Sanji go, who wasted no time in shakily getting back to his feet. Brooke followed suit. "If Nami-san is here too, then it must be that time…with Luna-san…and Zoro-san…"

"Luna-san? I've never met anyone by that name, and I'd think I'd remember someone as gorgeous as she sounds." He leaned against the wall. "And what does Marimo have to do with any of this."

The musician turned his head towards the ground. "I…honestly don't recall…any of the specifics…"

Sanji was troubled by his friend's hesitation. "Just spit it out. What happened?"

"Really…if I'd have known I would see you again like this…"

"You're rambling, just say it already."

"I guess…it won't make…much of a difference anyway…it could though…"

"Brooke! What happened to Zoro?!"

Brooke jumped at the ferocity in his friend's voice. "Zoro-san…never came back from his trip through time."


	6. That Green Gentleman

**Sorry this is (really) late. I've been busy all week. Honest. It's not like I've been watching _Hetalia_ until my eyes bleed or anything...*fangirls over America for a bit.***

**...I've been pretty busy too. You'll still get a chapter this Sunday/Monday though.**

**This week, Sanji and Brooke prepare to change locations while Luffy and friends suffer from 3's inability to write a decent fight scene! How exciting!**

**Reviews:**

**Abra Cadaverous: **You love my story? *starts dancing.* Yeah, it comes in handy. ;) Me neither, but I did anyway. All governments are, on the inside. _ So true. The other pirates too, if they lose this battle. :P Well, since Brooke is one of them, yes. :D Cool, me too! Really? That's weird. I fence a little bit and I love it. Aw shucks, you're making me blush. *Hides spleen.* I have nooo idea what you're talking about...Thank you!

**ColourPearl: ***Hides head in shame at delay.* Thanks! I try, I try. There's more of that coming up soon. Maybe next chapter, we'll see. Well, we'll see about that too, I suppose. Maaaybe...:D

**Sora Tayuya: **Trig's complicated. There are all those triangles everywhere. :P *Hides head.* I have nooo idea what you're talking about...

**dandy wonderous: **Darn. Well it's a good thing he's never showing up again...or is he? (he's not). Yeah, but I felt it still needed to be said. YEY!! *puppies start dancing in the streets.* Maybe...but, I have nooo idea what you're talking about...

**And I don't own One Piece. Be happy too, cause I'd take loads more breaks than Oda does. **

* * *

Sanji stared at the skeleton. "What do you mean he never came back?"

"Just what I said, he never came back."

"So…" he mentally chastised himself for even considering the option, "he died?"

"That's what the rest of us assumed. You and Luffy-san and Nami-san never would talk about this little trip of yours."

"Luffy's here too? What exactly do you remember?"

"Not much…I already told you, you guy's never talked about it."

"But you must remember something, right?!"

Brooke was startled at the sudden change in tone of his friend's voice. "I-I do…but…"

~-~

"_What's taking them so long?" Chopper asked worriedly._

"_Chill dude, it's only been like what, five minutes?" Franky said. "How long did she say they'd be?"_

"_About five minutes." Robin answered, glancing at the spot where their friends disappeared._

_Suddenly a metallic smell followed by a tearing sound erupted through the landscape. Nami and Sanji came stumbling out of a tear that appeared in the air followed shortly by Luffy and Luna bringing up the rear. As soon as she was through, Luna turned to face the tear and pulled up from the bottom like a zipper, sealing the portal._

"_Wait, where's Zoro?" Usopp asked. "Why did you seal that when Zoro hasn't come back yet?"_

_That's when they noticed that all of their returning friends wore the same downcast expression._

"_Zoro…won't be coming back." Luffy said simply. Nothing more was said on the matter._

_~-~  
_

"So…he could have not died?"

Brooke shrugged. "Maybe. I used to hold on to that hope too, that someday I'd catch up to him and see him again. But the longer I can't find him, the more hope I lose. This isn't a pirate's era anymore."

"That idiot's too stubborn to die anyway…" Sanji muttered.

"Of course he is." The skeleton stood and offered the chef a hand, which he gratefully accepted as the musician pulled him to his feet.

"Bassia I assume?" Sanji nodded. Brooke slung the blonde's arm over his shoulders and walked them out of the alleyway.

"Where are you taking us? The Blue Station is the other way!"

"Yes, we're going to see Sunny."

"I've already talked to her! We need to go get Nami-san back!"

"You can barely stand, Sanji-san. What do you expect to do against this new foe? Besides, she won't be there by the time you get to Neo Water 7."

"What do you mean?! Of course she will be."

Brooke sadly shook his head. "If you're going after who I think you're going after, then she will certainly not be there by the time you get there, for you see, it's about time that the base gets moved."

"Who's base?"

"Her base."

"Who is she?"

"Oh, have you not met her yet?"

Sanji then had a vision of stark black hair, cold black eyes, and a painfully pointy heel in his gut. "Oh, you mean her. Why don't you just use her name?"

"Do you know her name?" Brooke asked hopefully.

"Now that I think about it, no."

He sighed. "I thought as much. No one does, not even the Government. She 'helps' them out though, so they don't think much of it."

"But how do you know she's moving? Where is she going?"

"I doubt anyone but she actually knows where she's going. As for the how, it's what she always does. I've been looking for her for a while now, but every time I get to her new base, she's already gone. I might have made it this time, but, well, I saved you instead."

Sanji looked away awkwardly. "You didn't have to do that…"

"It matters not; we have all the time in the world to finish our duel."

At this point they had arrived back at the docks where the Thousand Sunny was anchored. Sanji disentangled himself from Brooke and started to attempt to climb onboard using the continently placed rope ladder. Brooke jumped aboard and reached down to help his friend the rest of the way up the ladder. When they both made it to the grassy deck, two splashes made them turn to find Sunny facing them with a bloody hammer.

"Sunny…what was that?" Sanji asked hesitantly.

"Just some looters. I took care of them though." She grinned and ran forward to embrace Brooke. "Brooke! You haven't stopped by in forever."

"Sorry, Sunny-san. I've been busy." He replied as they twirled around in a circle.

"So," she said, stepping away from Brooke as she grinned at him and Sanji, "what can I do for you boys?"

"Sanji-san here needs to get that Bassia out of his system," Brooke replied. "Food and rest would be nice for us both, and I guess it's back to square one for us."

"Kay. I managed to finally fix Mini Merry, so you can use that when you go out again."

"Sunny, you're a dear." Sanji said as he walked over and placed his hand on the Klabautermann's head. "I can stand now, so leave the food to me."

She nodded and took his hand to guide him into the kitchen. His kitchen. Sanji was delighted to find that, other than a layer of dust coating every surface and a few missing items here and there, not much had changed.

"You took your knives with you," Sunny stated, "and looters managed to walk away with a few items, but everything else should still be here. I can't keep perishables on board, but there might be something in the cabinets."

The cook nodded and started pilfering through the cabinets. He found enough ingredients to throw something together for him and Brooke and set to work.

Just as Sanji was putting the finishing touches on his culinary masterpiece, Brooke waltz in the kitchen carrying an eternal pose.

"So you found it alright?" Sunny asked.

"Yes. Thank you for looking after it."

"Where are we going next?" Sanji asked, handing him his food. He took it and handed the pose to Sanji.

"Just a little place where we can gather information."

"Brooke…this can't be right. Eternal poses can't lock on to ships."

"It's very difficult and time consuming, but it's possible. How do you think people are supposed to find places like Neo Water 7 if they keep moving around?"

"If you say so…" He traced over the name on the eternal pose, trying to stop the flood of memories that came back by looking at the word.

_Baratie._

* * *

Luffy jumped off the train as soon as it pulled into the station. After it came to a complete stop, Zoro, Usopp, and Luna followed suit. She tossed Luffy his hat and handed Wado to Zoro and Shuusui to Usopp, keeping Kitetsu to herself.

"Uh, what're you doing?" Zoro asked. "Those are all mine."

"Did you listen to a word I said on the train?" she replied while fastening the blade to her waist. "If you find that you are not strong enough to handle the no name pick-pockets that we will come across on our way through the city with only one sword, then by all means feel free to take them back."

The swordsman mumbled something before nodding his head towards the sword she possessed. "That's cursed, you know."

She grinned devilishly. "Thanks for caring, Zoro-kun, but it'll take more than some sword-curse to take me out."

"C'mon! We gotta get going!" Luffy shouted as he ran out of the station.

"Urg, this thing is heavy…" Usopp complained. "Zoro, switch with me."

"No. You'll be fine." He helped him tie the sword on his back and then turned and followed his captain. Luna and Usopp followed close behind.

"So, where do we go from here?" Luffy asked, turning expectantly to their guide.

"Um…" she looked at the streets as if expecting there to be some sign. "This way," she decided, pointing down the dark street a little to the group's left, "I think."

"You think?" Usopp asked. "You're supposed to be the one who knows where she's going!"

"Shut it Nosey, it's been a while." She turned and walked down her selected street.

"N-nosey?! Wait a minute…" his protests were cut short as his friends followed Luna.

"You coming, Usopp?" Luffy asked. He sighed and followed.

After five dead ends and three wrong buildings, Luna finally stopped in front of a brick building with a large wooden door and a dome roof, just like every other building on this street, which she claimed to be where Nami and Sanji were.

"You sure it's the right one this time?" Zoro asked.

"Yes, this time I'm positive." She nodded confidently.

"Alright then." Luffy said as he punched down the door…again.

"You could think of another way in," Usopp complained, "considering what happened the last time…"

"Don'ts worry ya heads abouts that." A voice said from inside the building. "Ya finally gots da right ones."

"Indeed." A second voice said. "I was starting to worry you would never be able to pick the right one, Psi-chan."

Luffy wasted no time charging into the building with Zoro at his heels. Luna and Usopp casually followed them in. Once inside they were face to face with Jasper and Horace, who were standing in the middle of a large, circular room looking all too pleased with themselves.

"Where're Sanji and Nami?" Luffy said, glaring at them.

"We are sorry to inform you that your 'Sanji' appears to have been misplaced." Horace replied.

The pirate captain was not pleased with this response and expressed his displeasure by destroying the column he was standing next to. "Where is he?"

The minions gulped. "I-t don'ts matters much any mores. H-he's deads by nows." Jasper sputtered out.

Zoro tied his bandana on his head and unsheathed his sword before stepping forward to stand next to Luffy, grabbing the sword Luna had in the process. "Tell us where he is and we'll be the judges of that."

"We were instructed to keep you gentlemen and lady busy while our boss deals with some…other business matters." Horace said as he pointed his cane as Zoro and took a fencing stance. "If you do manage to subdue us without beating us into unconsciousness, you may find us to be a bit more cooperative."

"Is that a challenge?" Zoro asked as he took a fighting stance. Jasper brought out his kunai knives as Luffy cracked his knuckles. A few seconds of pre battle tension occurred before the brothers suddenly lunged at their opponents.

Usopp and Luna ducked behind a nearby column. "Okay, you two can take care of them!" Usopp shouted.

"Good luck!" Luna added, giving them a thumbs up.

Horace lunged at Zoro who easily dodged and retaliated with a downward slice of his one. Horace managed to jump out of the way and countered with a jab to Zoro's torso which was easily blocked by the second katana. He jumped out of the way of another slice which the green haired man was about to follow up with if an explosion from the other side of the room hadn't distracted him.

Luffy went flying through the air and hit (and destroyed) another wooden door. He jumped to his feet and glared down his opponent.

"That's…like from Sky Island…"

"Not 'likes' from da skys; _is_ froms da skys." Jasper grinned before lunging forward to slice at Luffy's arm and leg with his kunai only to be stopped by a fist to his face.

"_Hissatsu Kayaku Boshi!_" Zoro heard Usopp shout and turned around in time to see something blow up in his opponents face. The swordsmen internally cursed himself for letting his not-worry for Sanji's wellbeing transfer to not-worry for Luffy and distract him from his fight. Both of them could easily take care of themselves and not-worrying like this was stupid and could easily get him killed.

"Nice shot Usopp." Luna commented. "I guess you really can fight."

"Of course I can fight! How else could I have managed to repel the ninja turtles that tried to overtake my village when I was only three years old? I remember it like it was yesterday…"

Usopp's epic tale was cut short by Horace's sudden appearance by his side. "You stay out of the way, please." He said before lunging and hitting Usopp's arm with his pimp cane. The liar stepped back, holding his injured arm while Luna delivered a karate chop to the spot between hi s neck and shoulder. The man fell backwards only to be caught between Zoro's swords. "So this is where you crawled off to. Oi Luffy!" He shouted, not taking his eyes off of Horace. "You done over there?"

"Yeah." He walked over to where the others were, dragging a beaten but still conscious Jasper behind him.

"I'll ask you again," Luffy said, slamming him into the column, "Where. Is. Sanji?"

Jasper ground his teeth at Luffy, refusing to respond. Zoro flipped his swords so that the blades were facing Horace's neck.

"We're tired of playing games!" He pulled back to slam him into the column again, this time causing it to crack and his victim to cough up blood. "What did you do with Sanji? Where are you keeping Nami?!"

"Now now, even Royalty needs to ask nicely you know." Luffy and Zoro blinked only to find the brother's missing. They turned around to find them standing by a black haired woman who just so happened to have Nami tied up by her side.

"Nami!" Luffy shouted before rushing forward.

"Time out." a little girl the pirate captain failed to notice said. The next thing he knew, his arms were tied in a knot behind his back and he was being held at sword point by the woman.

Zoro glanced back and forth between his now empty hand and Luna still standing behind the column. "How did you…"

"Time travel is quite a tricky thing, you know." She laughed and nodded her head towards her minions. "You two go ahead and take her to the new base. Don't screw up this time." They nodded in sync Horace slung Nami over his shoulder and they both started walking towards the front doorway. Nami started kicking at his face, shouting obscenities all the while.

Zoro rushed forward to block them, grabbing his last sword from Usopp's back on his way. He was almost there when he heard shout "Time out." He blinked and Luna appeared in front of him with a cut across her cheek and thigh, holding Wado while the woman was a few steps away with the girl, nursing a large gash on her left forearm. Horace, Jasper, Nami, and Usopp were nowhere to be found.

The woman smirked. "I wonder how long you can keep that up, child."

"Long enough hag." Luna replied. She turned and put Zoro's sword in his mouth for him. The girl said "Time Out" once more and he noted that this time Luna said it too. When he blinked he found Luna dragging him to the ground as a bullet passed through the place where his head was moments before. The green-haired man looked around to find the girl hiding behind a column, the woman holding a gun and looking severely disappointed, and Luna jumping up and aiming a kick at her. As the two continued to fight, Zoro also noticed Luffy was standing unnaturally still in the center of the room.

"What the…"

"Time's stopped." Luna shouted over her fight. "Got you," she ducked to dodge the pistol that was being whipped at her face, "out too. Do what," she dodge rolled to the side and kicked out a foot that the woman easily back stepped to avoid, "you want."

"Like what."

"Whatever." She gasped as a heel drove itself into her gut. Luna barely managed to dodge out of the way as the pistol came around to whip her again. Zoro made his way over to Luffy and attempted to untie his arms.

"Where'd the others go?"

"Don't know." She managed to back flip out of the way of a punch but it was clear that she was slowing down. "Got away."

He had just managed to untie his captain's arms when he heard the girl say, "Time in." He blinked and the two women stopped fighting as Luffy started moving.

"Eh? Zoro? How'd you get all the way over here? Oi, you!" He shouted, pointing at the woman, "where'd you take Nami?"

"Away. I'd suggest you go after her, but I'm not going to let you out of here alive." She turned to the little girl, "Sweetie, can you do that once more?"

The girl nodded and was about to speak again. "_Usopp Pound!_" Usopp jumped down from the second floor balcony, giant hammer at hand, and hit the girl on the head.

"Ow!" She hissed, turning to kick him in the leg.

"Time Out!" Luna shouted. She grabbed Luffy and Zoro's arms and started dragging them outside, along the way managing to aim a kick at Usopp. When he was unfrozen, she motioned for him to follow. Once outside, the pirates broke free from her grasp right before she collapsed to her knees. Usopp quickly knelt down to help her up. When it was clear that she couldn't stand, Zoro helped her on to Usopp's back.

"Quick…get out of here." She muttered.

"To where?" Zoro asked.

"Anywhere…we just…need to…get out now." She panted.

After wandering around the frozen city, Usopp found a completely deserted alleyway for them. When she was sure the coast was clear, Luna muttered "Time in," bringing the city back to life.

Zoro glance at the people moving outside of the alleyway. None of them had noticed the four of them appearing out of nowhere. Luna had slid off of Usopp's back and was now sitting up against the wall. The sniper was currently checking to make sure she was alright, while Luffy was seated across from her, hat shadowing his eyes as he looked at the ground. Zoro put his hand on his captain's shoulder.

"We'll get them back." He said to his swordsman. "We'll find Sanji and we'll track them down, and we'll get them back." Zoro could only nod in agreement.


	7. Things Are Shaping Up to Be Pretty Odd

**I would have added on Luffy and the other's and Nami's part too, but this got kind of outta control. As a result there may be no Sanji part next week, and on a completly unrelated note, next week's chapter might be late...because I'm busy...I have midterms, I swear!**

**This week, Sanji and Brooke meet some new people while 3 ponders whether or not she's actually got a fever.**

**I sure hope not.**

**Small fact that you won't care about, the scene below where Brooke and Sanji are talking at the table and then Sanji goes all Mellorine, you'll know the one, that was the basis for this whole fic. Wrap your mind around that one!  
**

**Anyways, enjoy.  
**

**Reviews:**

**Abra Cadaverous: **It muddles everyone, don't worry, it'll make sense at the end...I hope. Well, it makes sense to me, anyway. Yup, we'll meet them...eventually. Yeah, be jealous. :P *Hides liver* I have _nooo_ idea _what_ you're talking about... OMG where?! If she was really Hancock, things would have gone a bit differently...just saying. She's not a desendent of Luffy. No seriously, she's not. For reals? I'll have to find this Everyone and do...I'm not sure what, but it will be either brutal/awesome. No one, because it certainly isn't Spandam and Hancock doesn't wear pants. ;P I hope so, that was what I was aiming for. I KNOW!! Just wait until I make them go back in time to change the fight! I might not do that though, cause I just hurt my brain considering it. :P How sad, right? You're the first reviewer for most of the chapters, go you xlike 6.

**jfox99: **Both. Cut her some slack, she's been by herself for a while. Thank you! Double Thank you! Cool, here it is, just for you! ;)

**ColourPearl: **I KNOW! Sweet, awesome shock factor = success! Thank you! I try, those two are fun to write, so they make it easy. I don't know why.

**dandy wonderous: **Yup yup! It'll be awesome...I think. Yey thank you! That was hard to write, cause I had to plan what actually went on in my head but not write it cause Zoro didn't know what was going on and yeah. Confusing. He's just a doll, isn't he?

**Sora Tayuya: **Aw, I'm sorry! It's going to get a bit more confusing, but hang on until the end and I promise I'll explain everything!

**One Piece...it's not mine. **

* * *

Sanji looked up at the Baratie while Brooke tied the Mini Merry up to the dock alongside the floating restaurant reserved for that purpose. Alongside their boat were about fifty others of varying shapes and sizes. The additional parking wasn't the only change made to his old home. The ship, while still retaining its fish-like shape, now consisted of about ten stories. In addition to this, the ship seemed to be about quadruple the length that Sanji remembered it to be. Brooke had explained that the ship was given an artificial magnetic field so the Eternal Pose had something to lock on to, but it was more common to buy a Temporary Pose at another island that only worked for one trip to the seafaring restaurant.

Just then a thought hit Sanji. "Brooke, you don't happen to have any money on you, do you?"

"Hm?" the skeleton opened his skull to deposit the Eternal Pose in as well as brought out a pair of gloves and a bandage. "Why would I need that?"

"Like hell we are going to dine and dash here!"

"Relax, Sanji-san." He put the gloves on and smacked the bandage on his friend's forehead. "It's not stealing if they don't ask for money. I know the owner, so I can eat for free."

"Is that really necessary?" the chef grumbled.

"You'll see soon enough." He opened the door for Sanji who walked right in.

The main dining area was at least doubled in size, possibly even bigger. The whole atmosphere seemed a bit more upscale than the blonde was used to associating with the restaurant, but the biggest change he found was the addition of about thirty or so servers on the floor. Puny looking servers that looked like they wouldn't last more than three seconds in a fight with…well, anyone.

"Hello Sir." A voice said, pulling him out of his train of thought. The owner of said voice was a cute girl who looked to be around 16 or 17. She had her amber-colored hair in a braid and her bangs curled so that they slightly covered her brown eyes. Black dress pants sheltered her long legs while a white dress shirt and black vest covered her ample bosom. When Sanji finally met her eyes, he was shocked to discover that she was checking him out too.

"Welcome to the Baratie Restaurant and Hotel." She flashed him a smile. "Will you be staying the night?" she said in a voice that suggested some naughty things.

Sanji was about to melt into nothing but a pile of Mellorines when something in the back of his mind said_ Don't._ This stunned him long enough for Brooke to follow him into the restaurant.

"Cali-san!" He said, walking up to the hostesses stand.

"Brooke!" She came out from behind the counter and gave him a fierce hug. "You haven't stopped by in forever!"

"Very sorry, but I've been rather…preoccupied as of late." They parted and Brooke nodded towards Sanji. "I see you've met my friend, Mr. Prince." Sanji lit a cigarette as Cali grinned. "I hope he hasn't given you any trouble; he's quite the pervert."

"You're a bigger pervert then me, shithead."

"He's a friend of yours, then, Brooke?" Cali asked innocently.

"Yes, he's an old and very dear friend of mine, so hands off please." She looked disappointed at that. Brooke turned to Sanji. "This lovely gem is Cali, the current owner and head chef of the Baratie."

"Technical owner," Cali corrected. "My father would be the actual owner, but he's currently missing, so…"

Sanji blinked at the news that this little girl was now in charge of Zeff's dream. He quickly shrugged it off, after all he was only 10 when he was made sous-chef, and grabbed her hand.

"Enchanté, mademoiselle." He shook her hand before letting it go.

"Shall I show you two to your table? And you're staying the night, right Brooke?"

"If it wouldn't inconvenience you in any way."

"We've got plenty of rooms." She responded as she walked them over to a small table in the back. "I'll be back in a bit to take your orders."

"Shouldn't you let a server do that?" Sanji asked.

Cali giggled. "Like I'd trust a server with you guys." She winked and turned to make her way to the kitchen. As she turned, her bangs blew up enough for Sanji to make out a curl to her eyebrow.

"Well, that explains a bit." He said, touching the bandage over his own eyebrow.

"You've figured it out already? What gave it away?" The musician asked.

"She's pretty cute, but I'm not in the least bit attracted to her. That and we have the same eyebrow."

"_That's_ what gave it away? Not the fact that she owns Baratie or that your wanted poster is hanging over there?" He asked, pointing towards the far wall.

Sanji looked over to see a wall with some bounty posters on it. Unlike most establishments that hung bounty posters though, there were only a few in some kind of order as opposed to the sometimes hundreds that were scattered across the walls, and Sanji recognized two of them. The first one was of Zeff, clearly a Zeff from before he lost his leg for Sanji and quit being a pirate, but still recognizably the blonde's mentor. As for the second one…

"They _could_ have used one with a better picture." He sighed, "Unless…" he looked fearfully at his friend, "They never got a better bounty picture? Please tell me the marines were competent enough take a picture of one of the most wanted pirates sailing the sea!"

"Not really," a new voice said, "the drawing improved to something that eye-witnesses say was a closer resemblance to Blackleg Sanji, but they could never get an actual picture of the man."

Sanji turned to find that the owner of this new voice was a new girl with dark blue hair and blue eyes, wearing a travel worn cloak over brown cargo shorts and a dark purple shirt.

"T-tania-san!" Brooke exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you actually." She pulled up a chair and sat down at their table. "You're a hard man to find, Dead Bones Brooke."

"I'm a wanted pirate."

"True. Who's your friend?"

"You may call me Mr. Prince, my lady." He pulled a rose out of nowhere and handed it to her.

"I'm 15. I'm also carrying several weapons and am trained in numerous styles of martial arts."

"That's…nice…"

"Yohohoho!" Brooke laughed. One and a half pairs of eyes immediately turned to him. "He treats all girls like that, Tania-san. He's not trying to get into your pants."

"Oh good. I was lying about that last part." She sighed in relief. "It's funny Brooke; I've never heard you laugh before." She tilted her head towards Sanji. "Who's your friend?"

"He already said his name…" Brooke answered.

"I'm not asking for his name, I'm asking who he is."

"I, my dear, am probably the best chef you will find in any of the Blues." She raised an eyebrow at his statement. "May I enquire as to who you are?"

She extended her hand. "Cutty Tania, carpenter, historian, and criminal extraordinaire."

Sanji shook her hand while taking in her occupations and family name and internally cursed Franky for stealing his beloved Robin-chan. "So, Tania-chan, come here often?"

"I wish." She sighed regretfully. "This ship is really super, and it has quite a history! The artificial magnetic field was actually developed for this ship, by my great-great grandfather or something no less."

"Huh? Is that so?" the blonde man let his eyes wander around the restaurant again while Brooke put his face in his hands.

"Yeah, he allegedly had help from the owner's wife though. She was supposed to be a brilliant navigator…"

"Tania-san, didn't you want to see me about something?" Brooke tossed in quickly, but it was a bit too late.

"N-nami-san…and me…MELLORINE!!" the chef fell off of his chair into a pile of hearts.

Brooke smacked his forehead as Tania raised an eyebrow and asked, "Brooke, is there something you're not telling me?"

"Several things, actually, but I promise it's for your own good."

"I've been wanted by the government since birth because of speculations about something I had no control over. How can what you tell me make it any worse?"

"Believe me, it can always get worse." Sanji said as he recovered from his little fit and got back to his chair. "And why would any government want to hunt a pretty little thing like you?"

"It was speculated that several of my previous family members were accused of piracy. As such, I have been hunted since birth. Since I was on the run anyway, I decided to give them a real excuse to chase me, so I started building ships and stuff that they didn't authorize and studying the history that they forbid." At this point Cali returned to their table carrying tea for Brooke, some mixed drink for Sanji, and water for Tania.

"I didn't know you were here, Tania." She said with a forced smile on her face. "Otherwise I would have prepared you something…"

"Don't worry, Cal, I don't really have time to constantly flirt with men, being wanted and all that. Besides, I thought Brooke's friends were off limits after what happened last time."

"I…they…you…he…" the owner stuttered before sighing in defeat. "Whatever. The usually for you two I presume?" Brooke and Tania nodded, "and what about you, Mr. Prince?"

"Spicy seafood pasta, if you don't mind."

"For you? Of course. Call me if you need anything else." She turned and went back to the kitchen.

"Cali-chan's family is made up of pirates too, isn't it?" Sanji asked.

"Yes. And before you ask," Tania pointed at the wall with the bounty posters on it, "they all received pardons so they could continue to run this restaurant. Anyway, Brooke," she turned to face the skeleton, "I hear you know where She is currently located."

The way Tania emphasized the pronoun made Sanji know exactly who she was referring to. "And what if I do?" Brooke asked.

"I want you to take me with you." She said bluntly. "Or at least tell me so I can go by myself, if you won't."

He took a sip of his tea. "Tania-san, we've been over this. You're like family to me and I'm not going to let you go and get yourself killed."

"No, you'd just keep important information from me and let the government chase my ass across the world." She leaned forward. "Don't think I don't know exactly who you are…Pirate King's Muse."

Brooke choked on his tea. Sanji just raised a curly eyebrow. "Wh-what are you talking about, Tania-san?"

The girl in question smirked. "I'm not as stupid as this government seems to be; I can add two and two. It's curious that they seem to still be hunting the Pirate King's Muse down despite the fact that everyone else in his main crew died about a hundred years ago, and it is equally curious that you are still the only pirate alive from that era. They seemed to be stuck on the fact that your first bounty was issued before even the First Pirate King, let alone figuring out that how you managed to sail with the Second one."

"I should have known you'd figure it all out eventually," Brooke started, "but I'm still letting you find her."

"Why not? You're probably going to take him along!" She pointed accusingly at Sanji.

"He better damn well! She took something quite dear to me and I need it back."

"The difference between Mr. Prince and you is-"

"Is it because I'm a girl? Cause if it is…"

"No, although that is a difference. The reason though, is that he can fight Her and you, well,"

"I can fight! I may not be a martial arts master, but I know a thing or two about weapon tech!"

"Tania-san,"

"Let her come, Brooke."

Both the girl and the skeleton started at him. "S-Mr. Prince, what are you talking about?" Brooke asked.

"If she wants to come, then let her come. We could always use the extra help anyway."

"But…"

"You've been protecting them the whole time, haven't you?" Sanji stared kindly at his friend. "Cali-chan…Tania-chan…I'm sure there are others. You had to sit back and watch us die, one after the other, unable to stop it, so you've been protecting our descendants."

Brooke opted not to answer and sipped his tea instead. "If She's going to be as hard to take down as you're assuming, then we could use the help, especially if she's as smart as Robin-chan and as resourceful as Franky, which she seems to be."

"You should listen to him Brooke." Tania added.

"I should, shouldn't I?" He sighed in a way that reminded Sanji of just how old his friend actually was. "Very well, Tania-san, you can accompany us, however," Tania started cheering, but stopped at Brooke's words, "we don't know where She is at this point." Both he and Sanji calmly sipped their drinks.

"What…but…I thought you…"

"We did know," Sanji supplied, "but we didn't get to her base in time and she moved on."

"I guess that would be why you're back here, huh?" She laughed, but it was interrupted by a commotion at another table.

"C'mon, girlie. I've heard about how you'd jump into bed with anyone, why're you fight'n it?" A rather large and drunk customer had grabbed Cali's arm while his friends sat around with lecherous grins on their faces. The customers kept eating as if this was a normal occurrence.

"Let go of me, you stupid shithead!" Cali shouted.

"Don't cha go talk'n back to me, girlie!" He raised his arm to smack her across the face. Cali closed her eyes in expectation of the oncoming blow, but it never reached her face.

She opened her eyes to instead find her assailant keeled over in pain, his friend's looks a tad more murderous, and a cute blonde standing in front of him smoking a cigarette.

"That is no way to treat a lady, fucking shithead."

The restaurant went silent. Brooke, who was standing with his sword partly drawn, sheathed it and sat back down, watching the show instead.

"Watch ya tongue there, kid." The man stood up to his full height, which toward several heads above Sanji's, and glared down at him. "Ya realize that I'm a marine, right? I can't be 'sponsible for what happens to ya if ya keep runnin' your li'l mouth off like that."

"Marine? I don't care if you're the goddamn Pirate King, you _will not_ treat a lady like that."

"Who're ya callin' lady there, bub? This girlie ain't nothing but a li'l pirate whore-"

The rest of his sentence was cut short by a rather vicious knee to the marine's groin. He keeled over in pain while his buddies drew their respective weapons and surrounded the stranger.

"You realize what you just did right?" The one standing directly behind Sanji asked. "Attacking any agent of the World Government trying to keep the peace is a one way ticket to Impel Down."

"Please, I could break out of Impel Down with my hands tied behind my back." He took a final drag from his cigarette before dropping it on top of the fallen marine's head. "And since when is attempt rape considered keeping the peace?"

"Shut your trap!" One standing on Sanji's right shouted. "What do you know? At this rate, you're going to be no better than a bloody pirate!"

"Better a pirate than whatever you shitheads are." The marines had enough of this and simultaneously attacked their seemingly defenseless prey. Whispers of "That's a bit excessive of them," and "Really, he should have known better," echoed throughout the restaurant.

"Is he going to be okay?" Tania asked, gripping her chair tightly. "They're ganging up on him, that's not super. Shouldn't you help him or something?"

"Yohoho," he chuckled, "He'll be fine. After all, Sanji-san was always stronger than me."

She raised an eyebrow at her friend in disbelief before what he said fully sunk in. When it did, she whipped her head around to watch the Pirate King's Right Foot in action.

It was rather short. As soon as the circle of marines made their move, Sanji dropped into a handstand and finished them all off with a few good kicks. They were unconscious before they hit the ground.

He kicked them unceremoniously through the open front door before turning to the still conscious marine that started it all.

"You…who're ya? Headquarters'll hear 'bout this, mark my words!"

Sanji wasted no time in grabbing his collar and chucking him outside with his friends. "Go ahead. Tell them Monkey D. Luffy sent me and I'll be after them next!" He shut the door and turned to face the thunderous applause of the restaurant goers and Cali, who ran over and gave him a hug as soon as he was done.

"Good show, old bean!"

"Wanted to do that for ages…never had the guts though."

"Finally, some real justice in this day and age."

"So," Tania said, "does Cali know who he is yet?" She nodded at her friend who was currently all over her great-great or something grandfather.

"No," he replied, finishing off his tea. "I don't believe I've informed her of that yet."

"When you do feel the need to inform her, make sure I'm around." She laughed before finishing her water in one gulp. "Waiter!" She called to the nearest one, "bring me some cola!"

* * *

**French for people who can't speak French:**

**_Enchanté, mademoiselle_: **Nice to meet you, miss.


	8. Back to the Street Where We Began

**Hey guess what? I did manage to pull this together for you all this week. Unfortunately it's criminally short because of that. Oh well.**

**This week, some transitions occur with some explanations of stuff while 3 loses the fight to not give everyone a back story.**

**Enjoy.**

**Reviews:**

**blueraven1999: **Thank you! Me to, but for some reason if their 'children speculation' then I'm okay with it. I'm weird like that. He chooses to ignore things like that I suppose. *shrugs.* I shall try!

**dandy wonderous: **Why yes it is! *joins in.* He wants to be surprised, of course. Just let nature take it's course and the like. :P I always thought it would be amusing if Sanji's flirting was passed down to his daughter. Guess a was right. :P Tania's actually becoming one of my favorites too, strangly enough. He is, isn't he? 3 That took a while to come up with too, so glad you liked it! :D

**Abra Cadaverous: **Mission accomplished. XP Maaaybe (probably). ;) We'll see what happens. Don't worry, the only Luffy pairing I can really get behind is LuffxMargaret. I do, I was just being silly. XD I wouldn't know, because I haven't either. They take it out of your servers pay check though, so don't do it. They need money. Well, I only really pair Sanji with Nami or Zoro...and Zoro can't get pregnant. XP Yes, kneel before the awesome that is me! Kidding, I'm not that egotistical, stand back up, you're making me blush. Not really, they're actually really good friends. Cali just got overly jealous because she's crushing on Sanji and Tania's hanging out with him. She'll get over it. Their like blood relations...except he doesn't have any blood!! SKULL JOKE! Always good for beating the crap out of. ;p I know right! 3 Thank you!

**ColourPearl: **Yup! The or something is there because I'm to lazy to find out how far back they actually are. _ It is...poor Brooke. T_T He's only human (I think.) He has to die eventually (maybe). Thank you so much! I kinda am...a little, if you think about it.

**Sora Tayuya: ***waits patiently.* Thank you very much! Well if you loved that stuff, then this chapter'll be fun...please stick with me a little longer though and try to hold onto your sanity!

**As per the norm, One Piece belongs to someone who can actually draw. **

* * *

Jasper glanced around the private car of the Sea Train that he and his brother sat in with their captive. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore and stood up.

"I'm gonna goes gets some foods. Y'all wants anythings?"

Nami shot him a death glare, causing the smaller man to flinch. Horace shook his head and kept staring out the window. His brother quickly scampered out of the car.

The young navigator turned her glare on the sole remaining occupant in the car with her. She kept it up for a few minutes before he finally snapped.

"Would you be so kind as to not gaze upon me in such a manner? It is quite impolite."

"Impolite? And what exactly is so polite about kidnapping again?"

Horace removed his hat and rubbed his temples with the heels of his hands. "We are very sorry about that, if it helps any at all. We would have preferred to have avoided such uncouth behavior if it were possible."

"You could have, you know, not kidnapped me!"

He sighed and leaned back. "This island that Boss would like for you to navigate her too...for all intents and purposes, there is a very valuable treasure hidden on it."

Nami's eyes lit up at that. "Treasure you say?"

The minion smirked. "Not the shiny, expensive kind, but yes." She looked disappointed at that, but he continued on, "It is in actuality an extraordinarily rare flower that can only exist on the aforementioned island."

"What's so special about this flower?" she asked. "And can you untie me? These ropes are chaffing."

"Alas, if I were to untie you, you would just beat me and my brother senseless and make a grandiose escape. As such, it is in our best interest to keep you as you currently are." He shifted his attention back to the window. "As for your query about the flower, it has been discovered to be extremely useful in many instances."

The orange-haired girl sighed. "Fine, I'll bite; what's so useful about this stupid flower?"

Horace looked at her appalled, "This, my dear, is the farthest thing from a 'stupid-flower' you are ever bound to find." He leaned his elbows on his knees and started the pirate straight in the eye. "Since this island we want you to find is near impossible to get to and it coincidentally happens to be the only place said flower can exist, only two people have ever had the opportunity to study it. One of them you might be familiar with," he quirked his eyebrow, "a certain Dr. Chopper?"

Nami's glare intensified. "So it has some medical properties. So do hundreds of other plants."

"But," her captor exclaimed, leaning back in his seat, "how many of those alleged hundreds that you mentioned had the potential to cure anything?"

"So, that boss of yours has someone she cares about who's sick and the only cure is in that flower?" Nami shrugged as much as her binds would let her. "Is that supposed to make me feel sorry for her or something?"

He chuckled. "If you put it like that, you make it sound like she actually has a heart." He sighed. "Unfortunately this flower can do more than just heal people. The only other person to have studied that side of the flower we are hunting is a man by the name of Vegapunk III."

"Third? How many Vegapunks are there?"

"I believe that there is currently a fourth working for the World Government as we speak, but we're digressing." He turned to face his captive. "Vegapunk III studied the flower in question and found that besides its numerous medical properties, it could be used for…other things." He leaned back again and shook his head. "Not one soul knows every single thing he found out about the plant, but what he found fit to show the world was both disturbing and pleasing. Among the different concoctions he made out of the flower was one that could actually reverse the effects of devil fruits."

"Like, get rid of them completely? Even bring back a user's ability to swim?"

"Yes in theory at any rate. As it turned out, even though everyone praised this discover of his as one of the crowning achievements in history, no one ever wanted to actually try it out. As a result of this, no one knows what the side-effects of it are."

"So, your boss wants to get rid of a devil fruit?"

"That is what she wants us to assume."

Nami pouted. "What's with the vague answers? Not high enough on the food chain to get the real answers, I suppose."

"This so-called organization of ours here consists of only four members…five members, I suppose, now that you are here."

"I'm being held here against my will! I don't count!"

Horace grimaced and looked back out the window. "What makes you think any of our predicaments are any different?"

The navigator stared blankly at him, a question in her eyes. She never got the chance to voice it, however, as at that moment Jasper returned with his goodies from the snack car.

"I gots some mikans and somes cakes for yous guys." He said, handing the cake to his brother, who took it with a word of thanks before staring out the window again, and offering the mikan to Nami, who sighed exasperated.

"How am I supposed to eat that tied up?"

He blinked at her while his brother chuckled.

"It seems as though our princess here would like you to hand feed her, Jasper."

"Or you could untie me. In fact, I'd prefer it if you'd untie me."

"But yous woulds just trys to runs agains." Jasper said, red faced as he unpeeled the fruit and put it in her mouth. She reluctantly chewed it and renewed her death glares at the pair of them. Jasper shifted uncomfortably while Horace just opted to ignore her.

_It's going to be a long ride to wherever we're going,_ Nami thought.

* * *

"Clear?" Zoro asked as Usopp peered from around the corner of the alleyway they were hiding in.

"Not yet…" he muttered in response.

"Someone's coming from over here." Luffy said at the other end.

"Is it the guys from before?" Zoro asked.

"No. They've brought some friends this time too. I didn't know they made bazookas that big…"

Zoro cursed under his breath. They had been going at this for some time. Apparently there was a missing girl who was described as, "She has like, brown hair, and two legs, and stuff." A worried citizen thought that the unconscious Luna was this girl and assumed that the muscular Zoro had beaten her into her unconscious state and was in the process of kidnapping her. Naturally local marines had been called. Fighting them off normally wouldn't have been a problem, if it weren't for the fact that if Luffy was caught stretching, their headaches would just multiply, Zoro couldn't use any of his swords with Luna on his back, and Usopp had somehow forgotten how to use his slingshot. One cloud-dial sacrifice later and the pirates decided that their best course of action would be to run for it.

Which was now why they were hidden in the fiftieth alley today, Usopp looking for a chance to get to the next one undetected while Luffy served as a lookout for the rear.

"Go!" Usopp whispered as he bolted out from their hiding place. Zoro kicked Luffy to get his attention before both of them followed.

Usopp led them into a dark dead end alleyway. He skidded to a halt just before the brick wall only to be plowed into it by Zoro and Luffy who didn't stop in time. After getting out of the pile they created, Luffy rushed to the entrance of the alley to continue his duty as lookout.

"Now what?" Usopp asked. "We can't fight them. And if they find us they could recognize us!"

"No one has up to this point. Besides you've got more tricks in your bag other than your slingshot right?"

"Y-yeah, but…"

"They didn't follow us!" Luffy said excitedly. Zoro and Usopp sighed.

"Well now what?" Zoro asked.

"Now we find Nami. Or Sanji." He started to leave their hiding place before two hands grabbed him and pulled him back in.

"And how are we supposed to do that when we have no idea where they've take Nami or what they've done with Sanji and our only guide is currently out cold?!" Usopp demanded.

Luffy shrugged. "Dunno. But we'll find a way somehow."

"You and your optimism. We can't just go wandering out into a world we know nothing about! Especially without a guide!"

"So we wake Luna up." He walked over to the unconscious girl and started poking her. "Oi, Luna! C'mon we gotta go!"

"Idiot!" Zoro turned sharply to get Luna out of Luffy's finger's reach. "If she's resting you shouldn't just wake her up!"

"But she can't help us when she's sleeping, so we've gotta wake her up!" Luffy stretched his arm around Zoro's other side to continue the poking. The swordsman ducked and lunged behind the sniper only to be followed by his captain's finger as if it were some kind of heat seeking missile. Another sidestep accidentally had him launching both him and the long-nosed liar at the wall.

"This is _not_ how you're supposed to treat an unconscious person." Luna said from the top of their pile.

"Luna! You're awake!" Luffy shouted, grinning.

"No thanks to you." She stood up and wobbled over to the wall to lean against it. "Seriously, do you care for all your friends like that when they're out cold?"

"Yes." Usopp and Zoro replied in unison as the stood up too.

"You okay? What happened?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah…it's just that jumping around through time and stuff can take a lot out of a person…'specially if she's bringing people along for the ride."

"So now what?" Usopp asked again. Luna sighed and shook her head.

"Whatever you want. If you want to go after Nami, I'll take you after Nami. If you want to find Sanji, then I'll help you find Sanji. But first," she stepped forward and wobbled a little before Usopp helped her, "we should get out of here. I know there's an inn here somewhere. We could spend the night there and look for your friends in the morning."

No one had any better suggestions, so Luna, leaning on the sniper's shoulder, led the way to a shady looking inn called _The Wooden Pony_. After paying for their room and a little extra to not ask questions, the three pirates and their time traveling friends found themselves sitting in a cramp, dusty room with only two small beds.

"Well, I can't sleep with you unclean pirates, so I definitely get my own bed…"

"The three of us can't all fit on that one bed!" Usopp exclaimed. Zoro shrugged and flopped down on one of the beds while Luffy lay down next to him, hat over his eyes.

"I was kidding…kinda. If you can't squeeze in there, I don't mind terribly sharing a bed with you for one night."

He led her over to the other bed where she promptly flopped down face first onto the sheets. "It's fine. I'll squeeze in with them somehow."

"You sure?" She shrugged and sat up. "I really don't mind."

The curly haired man shook his head. "No, it's okay. Ladies deserve their own bed anyway."

"You're doing it wrong!" Luffy sat up, rearranged part of his hair to cover his left eye, and put two fingers up to his mouth as if he was smoking a cigarette. "You shitheads don't know how to properly treat a lady," he took a drag from his imaginary cig, "now get out of my kitchen, shitty rubber-head."

Zoro chuckled. "That was just like him."

"Couldn't even tell the difference." Usopp laughed. An eerie silence descended upon the room.

"So," Luna finally said, "who do you want to try to find? Nami or Sanji?"

"If we go after Sanji, then he'd be a big help in finding Nami." The sniper stated.

"But the love-cook wouldn't forgive us if for letting Nami get away." The swordsman said. "Plus he can take care of himself."

"They want Nami alive though; they're not going to hurt here. Sanji on the other hand…"

"Is a big boy. He'll be able to take whatever this crazy era throws at him."

"He's all by himself though." Usopp let that last sentence hang there.

"Ultimately, these decisions are up to the captain." Luna said, sitting up to look at Luffy. "Who do you choose? Your navigator or your cook?"

"We'll go after Nami." He said without hesitation. "Sanji's going to be looking for her too, so we'll just meet him there."

"Luffy, think about it," Usopp pleaded, "how exactly is he going to get there when we don't even know where they are?"

"He'll find a way, don't worry." The raven-haired captain grinned at his sharpshooter. "It'll be fine."

"Where do we go from here?" Zoro asked.

Luna yawned. "I don't really remember. I will in the morning though, so let's just sleep for now."

"Remember?" the long-nose man questioned. "What can you remember they haven't even gotten there yet?"

"You didn't notice?" She looked at him questioningly. All three pirates shook their heads. "Any singular devil fruit can only exist one at a time. The time time fruit is unique in this aspect, I suppose. Since it can exist at any time, there's only ever been one person to have eaten it: me."

"I don't get it." Luffy said.

"So…" Zoro sat up, "that little girl from the fight…"

"Yeah," Luna shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "She's me."


	9. It's Amazing How a Girl Like You

**I am a horrible person. I've been rather busy lately and I've also been putting off this chapter for reasons. You'll find out at the end. I'm also bumping the rating to T because I realized I dropped an F-bomb a few chapters ago. Whoops.  
**

**Reviews:**

**Abra Cadaverous: **It's only stage one of "Let's Give Everyone A History So You Know Where They're Coming From." If they don't ever earn your pity, that's cool too. :P God no! That thing freaks me out! It's just descendants. Vegapunk is the one we all know and love (to speculate about), Vegapunk II is his daughter, but she won't be doing much here, Vegapunk III is actually mentioned in this chapter, and Vegapunk IV is the one currently working for the World Government. It's his fault for being so...green, and stuff. :P Maaaaybe. Thank you!

**blueraven1999: **Thank you! As a matter of fact, I did (I can't name things...as you will find out again in this chapter). I do have a concept for Usopp's great-great or something granson, but I'm not sure where to introduce him in the story. He'll show up eventually though. It is, and they would be.

**dandy wonderous: **They will...maybe. I just want to give them a backstory is all...because I'm like that. :P She'll deal, or join them. Whatever works. I spent a whole 2 seconds coming up with it and everything. XP I know, they're weird like that. XD So true. Luffy and Zoro were never the brightest though :\

**Sora Tayuya: **It happens. Trust me I forget obvious stuff too when watching movies or something. Thank you very much!

**I do own a one piece, but I don't really own One Piece, if you know what I mean.**

* * *

Sanji crept into the kitchen, silently shutting the door behind him. He took an appraising look around what used to be his kitchen; it was completely different from what he remembered. For one thing it was a lot shinier and more hi-tech then the shit-geezer would ever have allowed, for another it was (he estimated) roughly five times the size of what he was used to the Baratie kitchen being.

He walked through the kitchen, hand lightly brushing the counter as he went, coming to a stop in front of the only thing that remained consistent with his memories: the stove. Despite all of the expansions and upgrades throughout the rest of the area, the stove was still at least the same make and model of the original one Zeff had taught him to cook at, if not the actual one itself.

"Papa never wanted to replace that," a soft voice behind the blonde made him whip around at lightening speeds until he was face to face with Cali who was standing across the counter. "He said it was the anchor of the kitchen and that it had always been there, and should always remain there." She sighed and looked forlornly at it.

Sanji stood there frozen like he had actually wandered onto the Seatrain tracks. Brooke was supposed to tell her the truth about him tonight, but it was entirely possible he found the whole thing far too amusing to ruin like that.

Eventually he opted for awkwardly coughing and directly asking, "So, did you talk to Brooke yet?"

She chuckled. "Yes, don't worry; incest is too far even for me." The amber haired girl leaned forward and sighed. "It's a shame too, cause you're really cute."

Sanji shuffled awkwardly and glanced around the kitchen for something to divert the conversation. He's eyes landed on the stove, so he asked, "So, your dad owned the restaurant before you?"

She nodded and started at the stove too. "Yeah, it's a family tradition sort of. One generation looks after the Baratie while the next one goes off pirating. When that generation comes back they take over, have kids, and train them until they go off pirating too. The pirates always get a pardon though, cause no one else is capable of running this place…at least, that's how it used to be."

The chef looked up to find tears starting to form in his great-great or something granddaughter's eyes and wanted to brutally kick whatever was causing them until everything was all right again. Instead he opted for cupping her hand gently and softly asking, "What happened?" while rubbing comforting circles in her hand.

Cali blinked at him before looking away and responding with, "They…revoked Papa's pardon…said that the seas were calm enough _not_ to have a former pirate running a floating restaurant at sea." The hand Sanji wasn't holding had gripped the counter until it turned white. "It's okay though…that's the risk that comes with a life of piracy, right?"

He nodded. "Your father's a good man. Well, I guess it's obvious, since he's related to me." He managed to get a chuckle and a smile out of the girl, grinned and said, "C'mon, you should get some sleep."

"Can't. I've got to make sure all of the guests are settled in." He released her hand and she walked out of the kitchen, but stopped at the door to say, "You should probably go back to your room though. Wouldn't want you blowing up my kitchen or something."

Sanji smirked. "It would be your honor if I decided to give you a lesson in cooking."

Cali stuck her tongue out at him. "Please, I could cook circles around you, old man."

The pirate chef picked up a knife from its spot on the counter. "Care to find out?"

* * *

"Wait…what?" Zoro asked, more as an attempt to prevent the girl from completely passing out on them rather than to extract any information.

"You mean you didn't realize it sooner?" Usopp tutted in a superior manner. "How many time time fruit users do you know?"

"Shut up, no one asked you."

"Potassium!" Luna proclaimed before nodded off to dreamland.

"Wait, we're not done with you!" Zoro said, shaking her awake.

"Sleep now. You later."

"Just…explain a few things for us before you sleep."

"Can't it wait 'till morning? Ah, that reminds me…." She turned to face Luffy, "tomorrow we're going to have to go see a man called Fredrick. I might not remember, so remind me when I wake up."

"Alright, I got it." He replied confidently.

"Really?" Usopp asked, "Who are we going to see tomorrow?"

"How should I know?" Luffy shrugged.

"No, you gotta remember cause it's really important!"

"Don't worry, I got it. Fredrick right?" Luna nodded.

"Usopp, if you knew why did you bother asking me?" Luffy pouted.

"Stop trying to sidetrack us and answer the question!" Zoro shouted.

"Right. Yeah. Sorry. What question was that?" The swordsman was glad he was a patient man or else he would have chucked the girl out of the window a while ago.

"Why are you working for the enemy?"

"It's a thrilling tale of heroism and spandex…surely you'd rather wait until morning to hear it?" Luna pleaded.

"With that introduction?" Luffy was practically jumping on the bed at this point, "No way."

"Alright then," she sat up and stared at her three man audience. "I may have fudged the truth a bit; this tale has absolutely nothing to do with heroism or spandex…

"_It began when I was around…five or six. Can't really remember; actually don't remember what era I was born in. My parents were…not the sanest of people, and I'd really prefer if we just left it at that, so I grew up in an orphanage on some no name island in West Blue. To put it frankly, it was a dump. There was about one caretaker for every sixty or so kids, so the place was consistently in mass chaos. The only thing on the island was the orphanage, and the only way off was through adoption or stowing away on the supply ship. Most kids who left took the supply ship route. One day though, and alternate escape route fell on my head. I didn't really know much about Devil Fruits at the time, so I had no idea what I was eating…but when I accidently traveled to the past and was able to get a ride off of the abysmal rock, well, I wasn't really complaining. _

"_So, I started _Little Luna's Adventures through Time_. They basically consisted of my randomly showing up in an era to get food or shelter in some way and staying wherever I ended up until the marines or someone chased me away. It wasn't the best life, but I liked it. The marines in this era were starting to take notice of me though, and put a pretty hefty bounty on my head. Being young and frankly, a little stupid, I was easily captured. However, because I was so young, some officials thought that it wasn't right to just execute me on the spot…but they were flabbergasted as to an alternative way to deal with me, until She presented them with the option of having her take care of me._

"_As such, I was now Her personal servant. She was actually pretty nice to me, but I soon found out that She's always like that when She needs something from you. When She no longer needs anything from you…well, I found that out rather quickly too. So I did my best to stay on her good side and be as helpful as I could. I watched her go through minions, assistants, partners, whatever, Jasper and Horace being the most recent of what I came to know as "The Disposables."_

"_One day though, She decided to go after…something, I don't remember, and had to mess with the Second Pirate King in order to get it. When She kidnapped his navigator, he came to get her back. When he did that, he ended up defeating her and rescuing me too. After that I became a free traveler of time once again, no real purpose until I met Vegapunk III. Sometimes he'll give me tasks to help him with his research, but I usually just do what I want._

"And that, as they would say, is that."

"So that's why you wanted our help so much," Usopp deducted, "you need us to save you."

"Yup."

"But," Zoro said, "why did you bother having us challenger Her here in Neo Water 7 when you knew we were going to lose?"

Luna blushed and looked away. "To be honest, I've blocked out most of my childhood memories. I can remember facts like 'Monkey D. Luffy saved me,' but as for how exactly that went down, I have no idea."

"There goes that advantage." Usopp muttered. "Don't you recall anything that could help us?"

"Um…" she rubbed her temples, "I remember Nami a bit I guess…she gave me a mikan or something…I remember Luffy and Zoro fighting….someone…Honestly, I don't even remember Usopp or Sanji at all…I'm starting to remember Jasper and Horace again…they were pretty insulted that I forgot them."

"Really?" Luffy piped up. "They didn't seem to care much…"

"Yeah, well, that was before when I went to see if I could save myself without your help. I couldn't."

"So, even if we do find where She took Nami," Zoro said, "it might result in another loss."

"Not loss; strategic retreat. Besides, you win eventually…or else I wouldn't be here right now, would I?"

"If you want to look at it that way…"

"Yes, I do. Tomorrow I should remember where Nami is. We can go there after we see Fredrick. That sound good to everyone?" No one made any noise of disagreement, so Luna to that as a 'yes.' "Good. Sleep time now. G'night." And with that she was out for the night. The other three soon followed suit.

* * *

"They seem to be having fun." Tania commented, looking into the kitchen through a crack in the door, unnoticed by its occupants. Brooke gave a small nod.

"I haven't seen Cali this happy in years. It's rather refreshing."

"I wonder whose tastes better? Cali's pretty damn good, but Sanji's supposed to pretty super in his own right too."

"Sanji. No contest." Brooke chuckled. "Actually, this just might help Cali's little ego problem."

"Let's hope so, she like, totally needs one from what I've heard." An ominous voice said behind them. Tania turned and stared wide eyed at the new intruder while Brooke immediately whipped out his shikomizue and took his fighting stance.

The stranger was big, about the size of three normal men, and hairy, in a way that made him look like a giant bear. He wore nothing but tight leather pants and carried a bag on his back filled with who knows what.

"Leo the Bear." Tania recited. "Mercenary stationed in Neo Water 7. Spends most of his time working commissions for the World Government, but that's only so they will look the other way for when he does his real work."

"What do you want?" the skeleton demanded.

"Dude, chillax. I'm not here for you. Um, wait." He reached into his bag and pulled out a piece of paper. "Do either of you, like, know where I can find a dude named Blackleg-?"

He was cut off by a rather vicious swing of Brooke's sword aimed at his chest. He put up an arm to defend and the sound of steel meeting steel was heard throughout the room.

"Dude, not cool."

The sound had brought Sanji and Cali out of the kitchen to see what was going on. The Baratie's owner stood rooted to the spot, staring at the fight currently taking place in the dining area. The pirate lit himself a cigarette as he took in the scene that played out before him.

"Don't destroy my restaurant with your stupid fighting, shitheads!" Cali shouted, causing the mercenary's attention to be diverted towards her.

"You really are very stupid sometimes, y'know?" her friend muttered. The amber-haired girl shrugged.

"They shouldn't be fighting in my restaurant."

"Hey!" The large man called over to them. "Do you guys, like, know where I can find Blackleg Sanji? I totally need to bring him back for questioning like whoa."

"That would depend on who's asking." The blonde stated, exhaling smoke.

"Oh, sorry dude. I'm Leo. Who're you again?"

"Blackleg Sanji."

"That's cool, hey wait a minute! I like, totally need to bring your ass in and stuff." Brooke continued his assault while Leo attempted a defense and shouted, "The dudes in the government are like, totally flipping out man. They want to question you about that Luffy dude's whereabouts or something like for serious."

"Really? As much as I'd like to oblige, you really shouldn't fight inside the restaurant. You could break something."

"Nah, s'cool dude." He ducked a jab aimed at his head only to be hit in the gut by Brooke's sheath as he brought it around with the other hand. A metallic sound clanged throughout the room. "I'm like, totally working on government payroll right now so I can't get in trouble or anything."

"Frankly I don't give a damn what happens to your shitty ass. I just don't want you to destroy the restaurant."

"Why would you, like, care about some floaty cooking thing anyway dude?" He tried to catch Brooke off guard with a punch to the head, but the musician was faster and managed to duck. "Whatever. I was told to like, bring you back and stuff no matter what so are you gonna come or what dude?"

"No thanks, I rather like it here."

"Your loss dude." He launched another attack at Brooke who jumped back to avoid it, giving the mercenary time to dig into his bag and pull out a bottle and a match. "I just hope you're as unflammable as they say dude." He tossed the bottle on the ground, breaking it and spreading the liquid everywhere, and lit the match before tossing it on the ground too.

Sanji could only watch as Zeff's precious restaurant burst into flames.


	10. Can Affect a Guy Like Me

**I have discovered three things in the course of writing this:**

**1) My computer is physic  
**

**2) It also likes Panic! At the Disco, like a lot.**

**3) I am a horrible person.**

**But I've updated now, so enjoy.**

**Reviews:**

**Undercover92: **Thank you! Yeah, probably. I have a thing for corrupt governments in stories...the more corrupt the better. If I go overboard, let me know and I'll turn it down a notch or something.

**Sora Tayuya: **1) Thank you! 2) Thank you. I was kind of experimenting with that, so I'm glad it turned out well. 3) Obviously. :P 4) No, I'm a girl, he wouldn't kill me. Glare intensly at me while Luffy kicks my ass, maybe, but not kill. 5) Whatever floats your boat dude. Like, totally picture him that way if it helps brah. He's like that.

**IzumiTheMoogle: **Yeah, I do that from time to time. Thank you! *snickers at pun* I mean, yeah, tough times. You shouldn't, he's mean. Thank you for your wonderful complements!

**Abra Cadavorous: **Vegapunk II is Vegapunk's daughter, but Vegapunk III isn't her son, just another desendant. Intelligence is partly how you raise the kid to isn't it? Meh, I don't want to get too into this anyway. It would be too epic for words, thus why it was cut. :P What better technique is there? XD Here, take some brain soap. Oh no indeed...

**Starry-Night 11.0: **Understandable, the manga's about adventure, not romance. Thank you. No it's cool, intensity is good. Here you go then. :)

**dandy wonderous: **MWAHAHA! Yes that's right...no, it's not. I am a horrible person! He'd win. By a lot. XP Yes, poor him. It was quite difficult I assume. It's like, totally the valley girl talk, or something. For ceral to the max, dude. XD

**I, three-days-late, being of somewhat sound body and mind, do not own the literal masterpiece that is known throught the world as One Piece.**

* * *

Sanji stared in horror as the flames spread across the room.

"No…"

He could vaguely hear Brooke shouting something in the background and Tania and Cali run off somewhere, but he wasn't really paying attention.

"…no…"

Surrounded by the flames, he saw Leo smirking at his handy work. "So, you like, gonna come now or what?"

"…NO!"

Sanji struck out with his foot, hitting the mercenary in the chest.

"Sorry dude, but I'm like, made of steel or something." Leo gloated. "You're going to have to, like, totally try harder than that…"

Not listening, the distressed chef kept pushing his foot against his opponent's abdomen until he started sliding little by little against the flames he created. Eventually they reached behind the two of them, trapping them in the circle of heat.

"Dude! You know we're, like, surrounded by fire to the max right now!"

The blonde didn't respond, instead opting to swing out his foot and connect with the side of the mercenary's head, causing a sickening crack. Leo tentatively put a hand up to his bleeding head, stunned.

"Dude…not cool."

"You lost your say in anything, shitty bastard, when you set my goddamn _home_ on fire. I've worked too hard to keep this place standing just to have a shithead like you come in and ruin _everything_."

"I'm only like, doing my job, chillax brah."

"No more games. No more words from you. I've got to kill you then put the fire you."

"Hate to break it to ya brah, but you can't defeat me. Or put the fire out. Water and stuff's not going to work, it's totally like magic or something y'know?"

Sanji apparently didn't, or just didn't care, as he decided to shut him up with another kick to the face.

"You say you're made of steel, but it seems you missed you face. I'll just be aiming there for now on."

"Dude, low blow."

* * *

Brooke raced through the Baratie's docks, quickly cutting the ships free as Tania and Cali rounded up the still sleepy customers who decided to spend the night. Some of the little ones still didn't quite know what was going on, but the adults who could clearly smell the burning in the air herded them swiftly onto their respective ships.

When all of the ships save the Mini Merry were gone, the pirate musician set out to find his friends.

He found Tania and Cali around the back of the restaurant near the kitchen. The blue haired girl was holding back her friend who was trying to get back inside the burning ship.

"No…we can still save it…"

"Face it Cal, it's no good!" Tania took a step back, dragging the fighting girl with her.

"No!" She broke free of her grasp and charged towards the inferno, only to be stopped by a cane to the stomach.

"Brooke! Too much!" The historian shouted as Cali fell unconscious into his arms.

"Terribly sorry, but if she's anything like Sanji-san…" The skeleton suddenly paused and looked into the burning restaurant.

"Then what? Finish you statements goddamit!!"

"Then she'd probably try to go down with this place." He finished quickly. "Here," he passed her off to Tania, who was still trying to figure out what exactly Brooke was up to. "Take the Mini Merry and get out of here."

"What about-"

"We'll catch up with you." He raced into the fire without a second thought.

"But…you can't swim…"

* * *

Sanji stepped back from his opponent panting as Leo fell to the ground unconscious, bloody, and burned. It was then he realized that the fire had heated the ground up to the point where he could not put his foot out. In retrospect, it was probably overkill using Diable Jambe in the middle of a burning room, but the bastard really pissed him off. On the plus side, he could now probably kick his way through the flames if he wanted to escape.

He was going to escape, he had a navigator and an ocean to find after all, but first he wanted to put the fire out. If water wasn't going to work, then he was just going to have to try something else.

Just then something jumped at him through the flames. "Sanji-san!"

"Brooke! What are you still doing here?"

"Come on, we need to get out of here!"

"Wait, I've got to put the fire out first."

"You can't! The chemical he used to start it-"

"I know, can't be put out with water. I'll just find something else…"

"It can't be put out. Period. I'm sorry Sanji-san, but Baratie will be burning at the bottom of the ocean."

The blonde stared at him before breaking out into a huge grin. "That's just silly Brooke…of course the fire can be put out…"

"Sanji-san…"

"We can't lose the restaurant…_I _can't lose the restaurant…" he started chuckling in a way that was anything but humorous, "I made a promise…"

"Sanji-san…let's go. Cali and Tania are waiting…" He grabbed his friends arm only to be shaken off.

"No!" Sanji kicked out with his flaming foot at the flames, putting them out for a few seconds before the space was consumed by them once again. "I promised!" He kept kicking to no avail. "I promised that shit-geezer! It's his treasure! I can't lose it now!"

A gloved hand struck the chef's cheek with enough force to stun him. Slowly he turned his head to glare at the perpetrator.

"Sanji-san, it's not worth it. Zeff-san's been dead for a very long time…besides, we need to fine Nami-san. We can't waste any more time here."

Sanji kept his glare up for as long as he could. Eventually Brooke's words managed to make it through to him and he instead collapsed against the musician, trembling but refusing to shed any tears. Brooke placed a comforting hand on his back.

"You're right…" he said eventually. "We need to go…"

"It'll be alright, Sanji-san." The chef nodded in his friend's shoulder before straightening up. He aimed another kick to the flames, this time revealing the exit, while Brooke grabbed Leo. Wordlessly they rushed to the outside and jumped into the dark ocean below.

After some swimming Sanji managed to find and grab hold of Brooke and the mercenary to bring them to the surface. On Brooke's insistence, because he would have just let the bastard drown, or better yet burn, he tied him to a broken piece of the deck that had managed to somehow escape the flames and set him on his way.

A few more minutes of swimming later found Sanji crashing head first into the side of the Mini Merry. Two hands reached overboard to drag Brooke onto the small boat, so the chef took advantage of the loss of dead weight and pulled himself on board as well.

He stood in the front seat next to Tania, who had dumped Brooke in the backseat next to an unconscious Cali.

"You okay?" She asked, looking Sanji up and down to assess his mood.

He nodded, looking back at the Baratie which by now was a small glowing dot on the horizon. "Where are we going?" he asked, not tearing his eyes away from the sight.

"The only Eternal Pose I have on me is to Alabasta, so that'll have to do."

Sanji finally looked away from the burning restaurant and sat down. "I guess we're going to Alabasta then."

* * *

Zoro was rudely awakened from his sleep by a relentless poking of his cheek. He battered the hand away and muttered, "Stop it Luffy."

"Wakey wakey, Zoro-kun," an obviously not-Luffy voice said as the poking continued. "We've got a busy busy busy day ahead of us!"

The irate swordsman cracked open an eye to find Luna poking his cheek, looking much better than she had last night, and his crewmates missing in action.

"Where…"

"They are taking advantage of the free breakfast being served downstairs." Luna answered, still poking his cheek. "They've probably been kicked out by this time though, so no food for you."

"Stop poking me!" The poking ceased.

"It's 9:00 right now. Fredrick starts taking actual clients at 10, so we really need to get going."

"How far away is this Fredrick guy?" Zoro asked, standing up and fastening the white sword Luna handed to him to his side.

"Only a few blocks…I think." The green-haired man turned to glare at her. "It's been a while since I last visited." She added, fastening the red sword to her side.

"Great, so now we're going to spend the morning wandering around town looking for some guy while our navigator is held hostage by some psychopath and our cook is who knows where doing god knows what?"

"That's the plan."

"Do you at least know where we should be going?"

"Yeah, but I'll tell you later." She said as she walked out of the room. "C'mon slowpoke!"

Zoro cursed her under his breath before following her out of the room and down the stairs to find that the entire first floor lounge had been destroyed by what he assumed was either an indoor tornado or Luffy eating breakfast. The owner glared at the two of them as they descended and pointed outside.

"Thank you very much. Sorry for the mess." Luna said as she passed. Zoro nodded in agreement.

Outside they found Luffy and Usopp sitting on the street, sighing and playing with the dirt.

"I'm still hungry…" Luffy muttered.

"I didn't even get anything…" Usopp complained.

"Tough cookies, we gotta go." Luna said as she strode out in front of them down the street.

"Cookies…that sounds good. Zoro, I want cookies." Luffy demanded as his swordsman pulled him to his feet.

"Later. Maybe. Ask Sanji when we find him."

Luffy grinned and sprinted after Luna, Usopp and Zoro trudging behind in their wake.

After twenty minutes of wandering around town, Usopp voiced what everyone else was thinking.

"You have no idea where we're going, do you?"

"Of course I know where we're going silly; we're going to see Fredrick."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Here we are!" she announced, cutting the sniper off. The boys looked around the street.

"Wait, isn't that the inn we stayed at last night?" Usopp noticed.

"It was right next door the whole time?!" Zoro exclaimed. Luffy just laughed.

"Huh. I guess it was. No matter." Luna pushed her way through the door, the others following. They ended up in a large room with huge bookcases packed full of various books lining the walls. A wooden staircase led up to a balcony area where a small desk full of papers could be made out. "Fredrick! Are you here?!" She shouted.

"Luna!" a small, red-haired man wearing thick glasses shouted as he popped out from a trap-door in the floor.

"Fredrick!" They joined hands and skipped around in a circle, laughing the whole time.

"Okay…" the pirates said simultaneously.

"Everyone, this is my contact in Neo Water 7, Fredrick." Luna introduced after the skipping came to an end. "He's an illegal midget and a pirate otaku. Fredrick, this is everyone."

"Oh dear. You're the Strawhat crew aren't you?" The crew in question nodded in agreement. "Luna, what have you gotten yourself into now?"

"Nothing I can't handle, but we do need some help."

"You know what happens when you mess with the Pirate King…Veggy's not going to be able to help you out this time…"

"No, it's cool." Luffy butted in. "Luna's helping us get Nami back, so it's all good."

"Oh dear. The Pirate King's Compass has been kidnapped? Oh dear."

"Who stole my what now?"

"The Pirate King's Compass," Fredrick explained, "is a way to refer to the legendary navigator of the Strawhat Crew, Thief Cat Nami."

"That's…so cool!" Luffy shouted. "What am I?" He asked.

"…The Second Pirate King."

"What am I?" Usopp asked with as much enthusiasm as Luffy had.

"Sogeking?" The long-nosed man nodded in conformation. "The Pirate King's Eyes."

"So cool!! Does everyone else have one?" Luffy asked.

"Yes. After the Second Pirate King dominated the world's oceans, the World Government started using what would be known as their 'Legendary Titles' out of some silly superstition."

"Yeah…anyway…" Fredrick turned to his friend, "Do you have any idea what you're doing? If the Pirate King's Compass has really been taken…"

"It's all good. I've got everything under control." She replied.

"Certainly, because you _always_ have _everything_ under control…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Face it girl, you don't even have control over what era you're in."

"I have plenty of control over my fruit powers!"

"Yes and what do you chose to do with them? Gallivant about in random eras until you land yourself in over your head one way or another and Veggy has to come running to your rescue!"

"He has nothing to do with anything! I can take care of myself!"

"Your outstanding track record would say otherwise."

"So yeah," Usopp interrupted, sensing a fight about to break out, "about that reason why we're here…"

"Yes yes. As Luna has probably not told you, I run a consulting firm that is a front for importing illegal Poses. Eternal, Log, Temporary, I can get my hands on any of them. The only question left is…where would you boys like to go?"

"Good question…" Zoro said, directing his gaze to Luna, who seemed to be sulking over by one of the bookcases.

"Alabasta." She said. "We want to go to Alabasta."


	11. No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

**Hey y'all. With the wonderful joy that comes with this brand-spanking new chapter comes this somber announcement. Finals are coming up, so I will be buried under study material until around Christmas, where I will then have to deal with Christmas, and when that's done I am leaving the country for New Years. Basically I am saying I will be quite busy from now until 2010, but I will try to update before the year is out. You should all be used to heartbreak and disappointment from my updating schedule by now though. **

**This week we meet some interesting new people and the English language goes after my head for abusing it so much. Like totally.**

**Enjoy.**

**Reviews:**

**Starry-Night-11.0: **Yes. *moment of silence...done* She's a bit out there. :P Yup yup! Stuff is going _down_. Thank you!

**Sora Tayuya: **Yes really. Why would I lie like that? I think I read that one...is that the one where Nami's pregnant with Luffy's son while running around with Usopp and their grandkid? THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! Because I am a horrible person who eats baby kittens and enjoys the screams of children! :'( I probably wouldn't have been able to sink it if it were still exactly the same...can't even manage to kill Sanji off let alone sink his ship. Thank you! You should be...

**dandy wonderous: **T_T I hurt him so...Thank you. It was rather depressing for me to write...which is why I put it off. _ So very true. ^_^ Yes! You can legally be a midget, so the inverse must be true! (It really just means he's really short, but not short enough to be considered a midget). I know nothing! _ We shall find out!!

**lochrann: **Thank you very much! What do you think mine's doing? I have an ending in mine and like six different ways to get there. :P I'll make it obvious who's related to who, either by telling you outright or by making it _really_ obvious. Thank you! I update when I can...

**Abra Cadaverous: **Yes! Kill him! Oh wait, this is One Piece. :P Running doesn't equal swimming though. At least not in my book. Yup! Isn't it? If you can legally be a midget, then the inverse must be true! Very well...

I, three-days-late, will not, under any circumstances, pair my OCs with Oda's characters.

**IzumiTheMoogle**: I do that sometimes. Yeah that jerk. What was he thinking? Only fun and happiness, let me assure you. _ What would give you that correct idea? :P Thank you very much!

**And I don't own One Piece. I will probably never be as awesome as Oda.**

* * *

Nami woke up in a large, well lit room. The walls were white with splashes of sky blue here and there to give it a homey sort of feel. Her bed was one of six all with the head up against a wall with large, curved windows on either side of each bed. Several wardrobes lined the opposite wall, surrounding a set of large wooden doors. The whole set up looked like it would cost a pretty berri to her well trained eye.

This was strange because, for starters, she didn't remember falling asleep. Also, to her knowledge, she was still a prisoner, and prisoners really shouldn't be left in rooms this nice.

Upon attempting to sit up, the young navigator found that her ankle was, as a matter of fact, chained to her fancy bed. That was a bit more like it.

A quick survey of the room found Horace asleep on the bed to her left, top hat hanging off the bed post and pimp cane leaning against the nearby wall, and the little girl (who Nami had been told was called Luna) curled up into his chest. Her hood was back for once, revealing her peaceful sleeping face and her soft, brown that framed it. Horace has his arm around her protectively as he dozed, still fully dressed with shoes and everything.

A soft click of the shutting door drove Nami's attention towards it instead. Jasper slowly turned and upon spotting the fully awake pirate, silently put a finger to his lips and pointed at the door. Now that he brought it to attention, she could hear voices on the other side of it, but was too far away to make out actual words.

Jasper quickly but quietly checked to make sure all the windows were shut tightly before pulling a key out of his vest pocket and unlocking his prisoner. Nami made to throw a punch at him, but the minion grabbed her wrist before it connected with his face. Putting his finger to his lips again, he nodded his head towards the door before releasing her wrist and heading over there himself. The navigator followed out of curiosity.

She followed the short man until they were both crouching by the door. From this new position Nami could now here the conversation that was going on between the girl's captor and a new female voice she had never heard before.

"…like, totally not like going to, like approve of this you know."

"He doesn't have to _know_, love, now does he?" Nami realized Her voice had taken the tone used when She's trying to get something from someone.

"It's like, Daddy's castle. And like his country?" The orange-haired girl swore she heard a pout. "He like, knows like everything or something."

"You're a smart girl, Laelia. Surely you could figure something out?" Nami caught the scent of money in the air.

"_Well_, I'm like sure I could, like, think of _something_. And don't like, call me Shirley."

"Of course. Sorry about that." Footsteps were heard coming towards the door. Jasper grabbed Nami's shoulder and nodded back towards the bed. They both made their way back to them quickly, were the subordinate once again chained her to the bed by her ankle. She slapped him upside the head for that and received a defiant glare back.

Just then the doors burst open the woman who was slowly making her way up Nami's list of worst-kidnappers-ever and a new, slim girl wearing an elegant yet simple light blue dress that brought out her equally blue eyes with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail at the moment and a haughty expression.

"Oh good you're up." She smiled brightly at Nami who glared in return. "Nami-chan, I'd like you to meet Nefertari Laelia, current princess of Alabasta."

The navigator speedily processed the fact that she was in Alabasta now and that this was Vivi's great-great granddaughter or something. "Nice to meet you, or it would be if I wasn't chained to the bed."

"Like whatever loser. I like know what's like, going on and everything, so don't think I don't like, know who you like are, Pirate King's Compass-chan." She paused briefly to shoot the pirate with a death glare. "Don't like think you're getting like special treatment or whatever from me 'cause you like, knew Queen Vivi or something. You people totally like ruined my country. Whatever my like friend here like wants from you or like does to you is like, none of my business." With that said, she stormed out of the ruin.

"She's an annoying little brat of a child." She said as Horace sat up and stretched from his spot on the bed. Luna turned over and curled up some more but otherwise remained sleeping. "But," She continued, "It's always a good idea to make friends with the top dogs. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I don't care all that much."

"And that's why you're chained to a bed right now. You two!" She snapped at her minions.

"Yes?" The asked simultaneously, Jasper jumping to attention, Horace snatching his hat and cane.

"We've got work to do. Nami-chan, why don't you just sit here and enjoy the nice day?"

Nami was about to retort but the three of them had already left the room, locking the door behind them.

* * *

It took about three days of constant sailing (with one stop on the nearest island for a quick supply run) for the Mini Merry and passengers to reach the Alabasta Kingdom.

Cali was rather sore about losing her livelihood and being dragged on this little adventure against her will, so right after their party disembarked and changed into proper Alabasta robes (Sanji in blue ones similar to his first trip, Brooke in the standard white ones, Tania in sea foam green ones, and Cali into bright pink ones) she immediately ran off on her own in the big port town.

"I'll get her." Sanji stated before running off after her.

He eventually found her talking to one of the stall vendors.

"Really? This shitty-looking apple actually grants you immortality?"

"Shitty looking? My naïve friend, how many golden apples have you come across in your travels."

"None." Cali rubbed her thumb against the apple's surface, smearing the paint. "And it looks like this trip hasn't changed that statistic."

She turned around and walked right into a waiting Sanji.

"Come on." He gently grabbed her shoulder and led her through the crowd.

"Lemme go! I can walk on my own!" the blonde man promptly did so, much to her shock.

"What's wrong?" Sanji asked. "You were sulking the whole way here and they you just take off."

"Like you have to ask shit-head. It's your fault anyway."

He blinked in confusion. "Cali-chan, if there is anything I have done to upset you, please let me make it up to you."

"Shut up! Your words and actions can't bring my home back!" She took a step forward and punched him in the shoulder. The chef stood there and took it.

"You…you were right there! Why didn't you stop him? Why didn't you put the fire out? Why did you just leave and let my Baratie sink into the ocean? You ungrateful bastard!" Cali articulated each question with a new attack to Sanji's torso, who now waited for her to get it out of her system.

"It was your home too!" She finally broke down into tears for the first time since hearing about her restaurant's fate. "Why did you let it go like that?"

Sanji wrapped his arms around the weeping girl, bringing her into a hug so she was crying into his chest now and shooting a glare to disperse the forming crowd of on lookers.

"I'm sorry." The pirate whispered into her hair. He heard the sobbing stop. "I…you can't possibly know how truly sorry I am for how things went down. You're absolutely right: it was all my fault, but…I, I want to fix it. I don't know how, but I will make it better." He started rubbing comforting circles into her back when he heard her start sniffling. "I promise."

Cali continued silently crying there for a good minute or two. Eventually she broke out of the hug and wiped her eyes of excess tears. "I'll hold you too that, you know."

"I hope you will, but first we need to save Nami-san. And," he gestured at the few staggering on lookers who immediately fled the area upon being noticed, "Maybe we can do so without creating another scene? There are several people trying to find us right now, after all."

"Me? You're the one walking around with that sparkling-blonde head of yours."

"Blonde is not that uncommon of a hair color, my love." Sanji responded defensively. "It's not like its green or anything."

"Still pretty noticeable." Cali chuckled.

"No one will notice it. I guarantee it."

"Basil!!!!!" What Sanji could only describe as a form came hurtling out of the crowd to attach itself to the chef's torso. "I've been looking everywhere for you!!"

"Eh? What the…"

"Huh?" The form, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a boy with dark brown hair and bright hazel eyes dressed in the standard robes for the area. He squinted and looked intently at Sanji's face. "Oh, you're not Basil…"

"No shit. Get off."

"Sorry, sorry." The boy disentangled himself from Sanji's person. "I saw your sparkling blonde hair and blue eyes and assumed you were my friend, but my friend's eyebrows aren't that ridiculous, so you can't be him, unless…" he looked up at Sanji with a hurt expression all over his face. "Basil! Did you change your eyebrows without telling me?"

"I'm not your friend!"

"Saying such mean things to me…after everything we've been through…"

"Kid," Cali cut in, "I assure you, this isn't your friend. He's my fiancé."

"I'm what now?"

"Oh…then where's Basil?"

"What does he look like? Maybe we can help you find him."

"Ack! I know what you're up to!" The boy took a few cautious steps backwards. "You won't be getting anything out of me!" he shouted before bolting into the crowd.

"This is a weird town."

"Yeah…now what was that about fiancé?"

"Relax grandpa; he wasn't going to leave you alone otherwise."

"If you say so…anyway, we should find Brooke and Tania."

"And get supplies."

"And try to find information while we're here."

"Maybe we should just split up anyway? It might be easier that way."

"Probably, but we'll need to find the others first anyway." Sanji put his arm on her back and led her through the crowd.

Unbeknownst to them, however, several people had overheard their discussion.

"_So it's all happening at Alabasta, is it?" an all knowing female voice smirked from a nearby rooftop._

"_Assuming, of course, they're talking about the Brooke…" a hesitant male voice countered._

"_How many Brookes do you know?"_

"_Rowena, you're missing the point…"_

In a nearby alleyway, another discussion was taking place.

"_That was him, wasn't it?" a dark, male voice smirked evilly._

"_That it was." A different male voice smirked just as evilly. "Lucky us…"_

Meanwhile, on another nearby rooftop, a young man with short blonde hair and a ridiculously long nose was staring at the spot where Sanji and Cali just were. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a beaten, worn photograph and consulted it for a bit before talking to his watch.

"_You're not going to believe who I just saw…"_

_

* * *

_**Yes, that is Usopp's great-great or something grandson. No, he, as of yet, does not have a name. So why don't you name him?**

**Seriously I'm out of name ideas. Toss me some ideas and if I use it, I'll give you a cookie. Or my eternal love. Or write something for you I guess, whatever you want. Just help me out please!  
**


	12. Anyway The Wind Blows

**This was supposed to be a lot longer and include what Sanji, Brooke, and Nami are up to, but I didn't quite finish it in time and I wanted to try to put something up before I left. Sorry, but it's better then nothing...right?**** And thank you to everyone who suggested names. I did find one, and it will be revealed next chapter.  
**

**This week, Luffy and the gang arrive at Alabasta and proceed to cause a ruckus while 3 tries to remember to pack everything.**

**Enjoy.**

**lochrann: **I'm sorry. T_T I do try to update when I can. Or maybe it's all part of my evil plot to get you to keep reading? (it's not, I'm just lazy). You're welcome.

**Starry-Night-11.0: **It's like hard but like some people like can like manage it like somehow. :P Yeah, he should be awesome. Sorry I couldn't squeeze him in here...Thank you!

**Jflower: **Hello again. Thank you for the ideas, but I'll just do my own thing for this story. I am working on your Myth request, slowly, but it's getting done. I tried to get it done too before I left, but I failed. T_T If you want/need to give me more information about that, feel free to send me a PM or something so you don't spam my review pages. ^_^

**Abra Cadaverous: **Excellent. ;) Good like that's like what I was like going for. :P Sanji family bonding time is always a win in my book. ;) Probably not, actually, since I can't think of anyone for Chopper. T_T

**dandy wonderous: **OMG you caught it! *glomps* Like, me too. That's what I keep telling him...

**Sora Tayuya: **What? No. She hooked up with Kohza...over time their line just became spolied royal brats. Oh he is. No worries. :) Thanks! Maaaybe...maybe not. Who knows? Indeed...whtat is he planning (I know, but I can't say...)? You caugt it! *glomps* Yeah, it runs in the family. Some traditions just never die. ;) Thank you! He isn't, but they are kinda similar, maybe distant relatives? Or are they? DUNDUNDUNNNN!

**Jeevas-on-Fire: **Thank you for the suggestion. Not at all.

**I don't own One Piece. And I hope everyone had a Merry whatever and will have a Happy New Year! **

* * *

Luffy jumped eagerly out of the confined boat onto the Alabastan docks.

"Couldn't you have found a bigger boat?" He immediately complained, "All my muscles are cramped"

"You're made of rubber!" Usopp exclaimed. "You don't know the meaning of the word cramp!"

"Hey! Not true! My leg definitely feels off." The pirate captain pouted.

"Just off? Try unable to move it." The sniper said as he dramatically made his way to the dock.

"If you can't get through a tight boat ride, you aren't real men." Zoro stated simply as he joined his crewmates.

"Sorry I'm too busy _on the run_ to provide you with adequate transportation, Pirate King-sama." Luna said as she made her way to the dock as well and tossed the Eternal Pose into the ocean where it exploded on contact with the shimmery water.

"That was so cool!" Luffy shouted. "Do it again."

"I can't! Fredrick makes those illegally, so their designed to be easily destroyed so they can't be traced back to him." She walked forward and snatched the straw hat from the top of his head. "And what did I say about wearing the hat in public?"

The rubber man snatched it right back. "I don't care what people think. I like my hat." He placed the treasure securely on his head.

"It's not about other people, it's about blending in…" She glanced at her green-haired and long-nosed companions. "Never mind. Do what you want."

They easily found desert robes (Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro in styles that were similar to what they wore on their first trip to the desert nation while Luna wore robes of lavender) and decided that it would be easier to find their target if they split up.

"Luna and Zoro, you two can take the west half of the city, and Luffy and I can take the east."

"Wait if Luna goes with Zoro we may never see them again." Luffy pointed out.

"Shut up!" The two directionally challenged party members shouted at the raven-haired boy while simultaneously smacking him on the head.

"Well I'd go with Luna…butI'dratherhavesomeoneprotectme."

"Just because I choose not to fight doesn't mean I can't…"

"So Zoro and I are looking east? Alrighty then." He grabbed his swordsman's arm and ran west.

"So, we've got east?"

"Looks that way." The two of them turned in the correct direction and started walking.

"So it's agreed," Usopp said after a while, "if we see an enemy, we run like hell?"

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

"Oh hey, food." Luffy let go of Zoro and ran into the restaurant, causing his friend to reluctantly follow. Once inside the pirate ordered as much meat as they were willing to bring him, conveniently forgetting that he had no money.

Zoro gave the room a curious one-over and noticed a young boy of about fourteen or fifteen staring intently at them. Never one to back down from a challenge, Zoro stared right back.

"Wa 'cha do'n?" Luffy asked through a mouthful of meat. The swordsman kept on staring until the bright hazel eyes on the other side of the room finally blinked.

"Nothing." He responded. "You gonna share that?"

"Get your own!" The straw hat man shouted before continuing to stuff his face.

"Hey," Zoro turned to face the owner of the voice, which turned out to by the boy from the staring contest. "Do you know where my friend is?"

The green-haired man raised an eyebrow. "Sorry kid, we just got into town. Don't know where anyone is."

"But…" the boy sat down at their table, "you're a demon right? You should know where other demons are. It makes sense!"

Luffy laughed, spitting pieces of meat all over the place. "You're pretty scary, Zoro."

He shot his captain a glare before turning to the kid again. "I ain't a demon, at least not what you're looking for, and I don't know who or where your friend is."

"Yeah you are. It's okay, I know these things." He grinned like an idiot. "So, you'll help me find him."

"Don't just decide things on your own!"

"Decide what? You were staring at me, and Pa always told me, 'Son, ya cursed by them there devils and ain't nobody gonna take any kinda interest in ya unless they be a demon themselves.' So you've gotta be a demon." He nodded, set in his logic.

"Listen kid-" Zoro started to explain when all of a sudden two marines burst through the doors to the restaurant. The two pirates looked up at the intrusion while their intruder slid under the table. The marines gave the place a sweep with their eyes before settling down a few tables away.

"Ugh, I didn't think they'd be this fast...demon-san, you've gotta help me find Basil."

"Why do I have to help you anyway? Who are you?"

"Eh? You don't know? If you were a really demon you would…"

"Yeah Zoro, what's wrong with you?"

"Can it Luffy!"

The intruder blinked. "Zoro and Luffy?"

"Yes?" Said pirates responded.

The boy grinned. "Now I know you're demons. No one else would be named after the Second Pirate King and his Right Hand. You must be pretty high up though, so it's no wonder you don't know about me…"

At that moment the marines, who had been eyeing the pirates ever since they sat down, decided to come over. The dark brown haired boy slunk further under the table until he was practically hugging Zoro's legs.

"That is a nice hat there, kid." The blonde one said, flicking the rim of Luffy's straw hat.

"Hey don't touch!" He slammed the hat back on his head.

"Not a lot of peeps go 'round wearing that anymore…s'rather suspicious…" the red haired one stated.

"We ain't disturbing the peace." Zoro said, glaring at the marines, "what do you want?"

"I am Captain Milan Gatski," The blonde marine introduced, "this is Lieutenant Korey Hackborn. For the last month or so we have been in pursuit of a young boy, Toby Siciliano. You haven't, perhaps, seen him around, have you?"

Zoro felt the boy by his feet tense. "Can't say that we have."

"Really? Dark brown hair…hazel eyes…about this tall." He held up his hand to about the height of swordsman's new foot warmer. "Doesn't ring a bell?"

"Not at all."

"How 'bout his friend," the Lieutenant said. "Basil Schultz. 'Bout your height, I su'pose; Blonde hair, blue eyes. Seen 'im?"

"No, we haven't seen anyone like that."

"You know," Captain Gatski said, walking around to Zoro's other side, "disrupting a marine investigation is considered a felony, right?"

"So? You're the ones disrupting our meal!" Luffy stated before downing another piece of meat.

"Quite sorry about that, but when our target is hiding _under your table_," at this point he bent over and dragged Toby out from under the table, "then, you will just have to excuse us for doing our jobs."

"No, wait…I can explain…don't hit me…" Toby said as he flailed around.

"So sorry, Toby-chan, but we will not be letting you get away this time. In fact, I do think that-" whatever else he had to say was cut short by the sword pointed at his throat.

"I'd put him down if I were you." Zoro threatened.

"Do not be under the assumption that you will be getting away either." Captain Gatski said calmly as he took a step back, turning his arm into a spring and trapping the now crying boy with it.

"Devil fruit…" the swordsman muttered. "You think you're special or something?"

"Well, a little I suppose." Zoro rushed forward only to be pushed back by a springed foot. Luffy immediately swallowed the rest of his meat and stood up to help his friend.

"I shall be taking Toby-chan back to the ship. Take care of them, won't you?" He made his way to the exit.

"O' course." The Lieutenant grinned, cracking his knuckles and his neck. The swordsman ignored him and chased the Captain.

"No ya don't, Gumu Gumu no Grab!" a hand attached itself to the back of Zoro's shirt.

"Do you really think this is the time?!"

"Uh…that's not me." Luffy said.

"What?" Zoro was pulled back to face the marine.

"Cap'n ain't the only fruit user 'round here." He smirked. The swordsman in his clutches smirked right back.

"You want the Captain?"

"No, it's cool. I'll take him." They both turned to where Luffy started his pre-fight stretching. "I've always wondered what it'd be like to fight me."

"Suit yourself." Zoro kneed his captor in the stomach hard enough to loosen his grip and escape. As soon as he was free, he ran out the door after the other marine. Lieutenant Hackborn made to follow.

"Gumu Gumu no Pistol!" Luffy's punch shot the unsuspecting marine through the wall, who stared back at the pirate in disbelief.

"Mind playing with me for a bit?"

* * *

"My family," Toby was saying, still trapped in his spring cage, "owns a vineyard in North Blue. If you let me go-"

"Toby-chan, you, your family, and your guard dog are from South Blue."

"It's…a secret vineyard. I wasn't supposed to tell you about it, but I did. Because we're friends. And you should let me go."

"We're not friends, and I'm not going to let you go just because-" Captain Gatski stopped short and dodged to the left to avoid the flying blade attack that was sent his way.

"Damn I missed. Still need more training." Zoro muttered as he lowered his sword and tied his bandana around his head.

"Demon-san! You came to save me!" Toby shouted.

"Not really. This jerk just interrupted my meal is all."

"Well, if you could save me while you guys are fighting, that'd be good, cause I should find Basil before he starts worrying."

"You, Toby-chan, are not escaping this time, and you, Demon-san, are coming with us. I am not sure how you managed to get past Hackborn, but you will most certainly not get past me."

"You talk too much." The swordsman took up his single-sword style stance. Really, whose brilliant idea was it to split his swords up again?

Gatski crouched down into a ready position before shooting forward, the springs on his legs increasing his velocity tenfold. Toby clung to his cage and screamed as the Captain brought up that arm to shield himself while pulling back his other arm and aiming a spring-loaded punch and Zoro's abdomen, only to be blocked by a sword. He sprung backwards as Zoro followed up with a slice and countered his next slice with his hostage-filled-arm.

"What a cheap trick." Zoro said as he pulled back to avoid hurting Toby.

"Whatever it takes to deal with scum like you."

The green haired man snarled and secretly smiled at the shiver that ran through the marine.

Zoro continued his assault, Gatski countering each blow with his Toby-arm and attacking with spring-loaded punches and kicks, some of them actually managing to land.

"Mama!" Toby shouted, backing up as far as he could in his little prison, "I don't wanna die! Sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all!"

"That would certainly have saved me a lot of trouble." Gatski muttered under his breath. "Why don't you just knock yourself off? Then we could stop spending resources catching your worthless little-"

Zoro managed to get off a particularly vicious slice in the middle of the Captain's rant that cut through the spring cage, freeing Toby. Gatski stumbled backwards clutching his normal yet bleeding arm to his chest as the boy hurriedly ran behind his savior.

"You…" he managed to get out before the sword pointed at his neck and the demon-like eyes behind it stole whatever else he had wanted to say.

"Leave. Now. Don't bother him anymore."

"I…can't. I-it's my job; I have to b-bring them back to headquarters..."

"Fine." Zoro raised his sword in preparation for his killing blow.

"Wait! No!" Toby shouted and held Zoro's arm back. "You can't kill him!"

"Why not? Without him chasing you-"

"They'll send someone else! Gatski-kun and Hackborn-kun have been after us since forever ago. It just wouldn't be right if someone else took their spot."

The swordsman looked down at the boy, making eye contact. Toby held it, glaring back stubbornly. Zoro sighed, knowing he wasn't going to win this fight and proceeded to slam the hilt of his sword into the marine's head instead.

"Wah! I told you not to kill him!"

"Relax kid, he's not dead." Zoro sheathed his sword and proceeded to drag the unconscious man to the nearest back alley and tie him up with his shoelaces.

"Thank you for your help, Demon-san. You'll help me find Basil now right?" he looked up at the swordsman with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster.

"I'll have to talk it over with my captain first…whenever he gets back…"

"But, then you'll help me, right?"

"We've…got our own stuff to do…so he might say no…" Zoro attempt to lie. He knew there was no way Luffy wouldn't help this kid.

Toby was either stupidly optimistic, saw right through him, or both. "Thank you thank you thank you Demon-san!" He threw his arms around the man's waist in a tight hug.

"You're going to have to not do that."


	13. The Whole Thing Starts With a Box

**Sora Tayuya decided to put this bad boy in a community, so I figured I should get off my lazy butt and finish this chapter. Yey.**

**This week our heroes get a little sidetrack with disastrous consequences. Fun times.**

**Enjoy.**

**Reviews:**

**lochrann: **Yeah I am *basks in the glory of ego boost power.* My fault for taking forever to update. Coolbeans, I don't really either, so that boosts my ego a bit too. You caught it! :D

**Abra Cadaverous: **Not too hard though... Isn't it? Like anyone needs to question Zoro's dominance. A little of both I suppose. Yes, Oda said in an SBS early on that devil fruits have existed more than once, just not at the same time, so that's why Shanks knew he had the gomu gomu fruit and Blackbeard knew about his. As for the aging thing, I think that the logias can only go elemental if they expect the attack, like in Alabasta when Luffy crashed into Smoker, and age kind of just sneaks up on you...anyway that's just one gal's opinion. I hope so. Indeed: The Bond of Rivals *insert epic background music here.* Not really, I'm just lazy. And I have random, inappropriate bouts of writer's block.

**dandy wonderous: **I do that sometimes. ;P Oh good, and thanks! It is a pretty epic plan. And he wins them too. Yes, I love it when I nail accents. :D Aw you figured it out; it's exactly like that...except not. At all. XP Thank you. Zozo-chan? I believe I have a new nickname for Zoro. XD Thank you very much. *opens box* Wait, why is it empty?

**Starry-Night-11.0: **That's partly for awesome effect, partly (mostly) because I'm lazy. It would...unfortunately I'm not Oda, so I hope my version is acceptable.

**JFlower: **It's not all that hard, it takes like five seconds and it's free, but whatever. I certainly hope so...

**Sora Tayuya: **You shouldn't really as I just made them up. I'll go into more detail about them later. Thanks. It's all part of a Build-up Towards Awesome that hopefully won't disappoint.

**IzumiTheMoogle: ***double checks* Guess not. I understand, it happens to me too. Thank you very much! That's good, I'm glad you're liking it! Of course not, he's such a softy. :3 Well, devil fruits only exist one at a time, so since Luffy is long since dead when the story takes place, that means that his fruit popped up again and was eaten by a random Marine, if that makes sense.

**Jeevas-on-Fire: **Thanks, you can thank a random Random Name Generator for that one. Thank you! You'll find out soon... Not at all.

**I don't own One Piece or it's awesome characters. Just the plot of this and the not so awesome ones. **

* * *

The blonde looked out over the crowd, piercing blue eyes taking in everything and everyone. His friend, though he used the word lightly, if at all, was nowhere to be seen. Usually his inability to stay put for more than five seconds came in handy, but now it was making it very difficult to locate him.

His eyes snapped to the shop across the busy street where he though he saw an afro peeking out from underneath someone's robes. Sure enough, further investigation into the matter revealed the source to be none other than 'Humming Brooke,' notorious pirate and one of the other unregistered devil fruit users. Their past relations have been mostly pleasant, so he was sure, push come to shove, Brooke was more likely be an ally as opposed to an enemy. Then, of course, he sees his companion.

_Human Encyclopedia: Cutty Tania,_ he thought. _What is she doing here? _

As if she sensed his eyes on her (he wouldn't put it past her), she turned and found his gaze, looking just as shocked to see him as he is to see her.

_It would be better for everyone if we had less contact. If Brooke is here, then that means that _She _should be in the vicinity as well._ He broke eye contact with Tania and disappeared down a nearby ally. _If that is the case, then things have become much more dangerous. _He stopped and glanced upward at the sky. _Please, I'm begging you…don't do anything stupid…_

* * *

"Something wrong, Tania-san?" Brooke asked seeing his friend's distraction.

"It's…nothing," She decided.

* * *

"_Gomu Gomu no Bullet_!" Both men shouted as their fists collided with each other. The crowd that had gathered stared in awe as the two fighters remained frozen, waiting to see what would happen. Eventually the force of their punch sent the marine Lieutenant flying into the nearby wall. Luffy took a fighting position as his opponent stood back up.

"Ya think ya can beat me just 'cause you've got more brute strength?" Hackburn smirked as he stepped forward. "Well think 'gain. I'm gonna teach you a lesson 'bout howda use devil fruit powers, kid." He pulled back his arm to whip it around Luffy's torso.

"No thanks, I'm good. _Gomu Gomu no Fuzen_!" Luffy's expanding body forced the marine to pull his arm back painfully.

"_Gomu Gomu no Tripwire_!" He shouted while shooting a leg out to wrap around both of the pirate's, forcing him to the ground. Without wasting a second he proceeded to pull that leg around, forcing Luffy to smash into several buildings before it finally snapped back to the rest of his body.

"That won't work," Luffy said standing right back up again, "because I'm made of rubber."

"Yeah, me too. I know how it works." Hackburn cracked his neck before getting into a fighting position. "That was jus' a demonstration on why neither of us c'n win."

"Ah, I see," The raven-haired man smacked his fist into his open palm, "my attacks aren't working 'cause you're made of rubber too."

"Ya jus' got that now!" His opponent and the gathered crow shouted.

"I guess I'll have to take it up a notch then." Before anyone could ask what that meant, Luffy had put his hands on his thighs and started pumping blood throughout his body, causing it to glow pink and emit steam. "_Gear Second_!"

"I dunno what tricks ya trying to pull here, but it ain't gonna work!" He crouched down lower to prepare for the dodge. Luffy merely stood upright again and held out a hand for targeting.

"_Gomu Gomu no Jet Bullet_!" His fist shot out too fast for anyone in the crowd to catch and certainly too fast for Hackburn to dodge. He took the blow full on and stumbled back a few steps to try to recover, but he had no such luck.

"_Gomu Gomu no,_" Luffy had managed to jump and appear right above the Lieutenant in the few moments that had passed, "_Jet Yari_!" His feet smashed into the marine's head with enough for to have killed him if he wasn't made of rubber.

"_Gomu Gomu no,_" while Hackburn was still disoriented, Luffy landed in front of him and stretched his arms back to deliver the final blow, "_Jet Bazooka_!" the force of the attack sent him through the next five buildings in the row in front of Luffy. He didn't get up again this time.

"Whoops," He stated, surveying the damage of that last attack while his body calmed back down and the steam disappeared, "didn't mean to send him _that _far. Shishishi." He grinned and laughed while everybody in the crowd turned opened mouthed to stare at him.

"W-what are you?" Some brave soul eventually asked.

"I wasn't supposed to bring attention to myself…" Luffy muttered to himself, "So I should try to slip away quietly." It was at this time he finally noticed the large amount of people his fight had attracted. "Where did all these people come from?!"

"We've been here the whole time!" They shouted back.

"Well, I need to slip away quietly so look!" He pointed at the sky randomly, "A distraction!" Every head in the crowd turned to wherever they assumed he was pointing while the future Pirate King made a surprisingly quiet escape.

* * *

"What the hell did you do?!" Luna shouted as she and Usopp continued running for their lives through the crowded streets.

"What makes you think _I _did something?! They could easily be chasing us because of you!"

Shouts of "Get that long-nosed thief!" from behind them was all the confirmation they needed.

"We don't have time for this!" Luna shouted before grabbing her companion's wrist and dragging him down a small alleyway.

"What are you doing?! This is a dead end!" Usopp turned to face what was sure to be their eminent doom.

"_Time Forward_!" He heard Luna shout before he felt himself pushed roughly into the dead-end wall behind him. The sniper turned on his heels to see Luna zipping up something in the air he couldn't see. A quick look around told him that the angry mob that chased them to this point was no longer here.

"…what happened?" Seemed like the obvious question.

"I took us forward about twenty seconds. Seemed like enough time for them to notice we weren't here and look for us somewhere else."

"Ah, good. I was just about to suggest you do something like that…"

"I'm still wondering what you stole that made them react like that."

"I didn't steal anything! That's Nami's job!"

"I've been with you the whole time, so I know it wasn't you. It was probably your great-great grandson or something."

"My great-what now?"

"Well I assume that that's who that kid with your nose is," she pointed at the other end of the alley where a young man with short, blonde hair and a ridiculously long nose just happened to walk past, "but he could be anybody, I suppose. Still think it was him though."

"My…" Usopp stared at him for a few more seconds before proceeding to chase after him.

"Now that I think about…"Luna thought out loud while her friend ran away, "you probably shouldn't meet your descendent. It could mess things up big time…"

* * *

"Finally! There you guys are!"

Cali and Sanji looked over to see Tania charging them down at full speed with Brooke not too far behind. Tania had managed to get Cali into what was more of a death grip than a hug while the two pirates simply exchanged knowing nods.

"Sorry I ran off like that," Cali sighed.

"It's cool," Tania said as she let go. "I wouldn't want to travel the desert with you acting like a bitch the whole time anyway, so it's pretty super that you've gotten it out of your systems now."

"What do you mean, 'the whole desert'? I thought we were just here looking for information!"

"Well, Cali-san, while you and Sanji-san were missing, Tania-san and I decided to just get a head start on that."

"What did you find?" Sanji asked as he lit up a cigarette.

"She's definitely in Alabasta now," Tania answered. "She has ties with the royal family, so She, Nami, and her henchmen are most likely in Alubarna right now."

"That shouldn't be a problem then. I have ties to the royal family too."

"Not anymore," Brooke shrugged. "Times have changed, Sanji-san. Vivi-san's not the one in charge anymore."

"Yeah, prissy-little-miss-look-at-me-I'm-in-the-spotlight-Laelia is the current crown princess," Tania grumbled. "Her father, who's supposed to call all the actual shots isn't very super at his job."

"Well if she's still related to my Vivi-chan-"

"Laelia hates pirates," Cali stated, "Simple as that. She'll jail you if you even get within ten feet of Alubarna."

"We won't know until we try!" He tossed his cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it. "Nami-san's in Alubarna, so that's where we need to go, cute princess descendants be damned."

The others stared at him, stunned to a silence that was broken by a loud crash not too far away.

"What was that?" Cali asked.

"Dunno," Tania shrugged, "care to check it out though?"

Sanji, however, was already running in the direction of the commotion, Brooke not too far behind.

* * *

"He's cold, calculating, unfeeling, and a perfect killer," Toby was explaining to Zoro as they walked down the streets of the port town. "His bounty is 150,000,000; 50,000,000 more than mine, despite me being the one they're after…" He admitted that last part with a blush.

"That makes no sense, if you're the one they actually want." Zoro asked.

"Well, they want both of us, that's why we're both wanted! Get it?"

"I got it! But why's his bounty so much higher than yours?"

"I'm a lover, not a fighter, and I told you, he's a demon, so Basil does all of the fighting for the both of us."

"So why are we looking for such a scary guy? You're probably the most cowardly man I've ever met, and if you know who I've met, that's saying a lot."

"Because he's my best friend!"

The green-haired man was a bit startled by the bluntness of that last statement, but recovered quickly. "If you're a real man of the sea then you'd fight for yourself instead of hiding behind someone else."

"But I'm not! I'm not a man of the sea! I'm just a small farm boy far, far away from home, caught up in something he doesn't understand! If I had the choice I never would have set out to sea…"

"Then why-" the rest of that question was interrupted by a shout of "ZORO!" and a rubber mass tackling Toby to the ground.

"Your aim's a bit off," Zoro commented dryly while Luffy apologized and stood up.

"It's fine, I fall over a lot, so it didn't hurt," he said as he dusted himself off. "Now that you've caught up with us though, you can help us look for Basil."

"Your demon friend right? He strong?" Toby nodded, causing Luffy to smirk. "I'd like to fight him…"

Zoro smacked him on the head. "We don't have time for that!"

"Sorry, did you already call dibs?"

"We've got our own missing person to find, or did you forget about Nami already? Let's just help the kid out quickly then get back on track."

"Hey! Maybe the person who took Nami also took what's-his-face-"

"Basil," Toby supplied.

"Yeah, him, so maybe in order to save Nami I'll have to fight him…"

"Luffy…"

"Unless he's a swordsman of course, then you can have him."

"No, he uses a gun…"

"Then it's settled. I'll fight him."

"We won't have to fight him!" the swordsman shouted.

"You're no fun…"

Suddenly they heard a loud crash from the next street over. Crowds of people started running over to see what was going on.

"Sounds like a commotion," Toby commented, "that's a good place to start!"

The pirates nodded in agreement as they ran over to see what was going down.

* * *

"U-usopp! Slow down! This is a bad idea!" Luna shouted as she tried to catch up.

"Why?" he asked, "I'm a pirate, and I'm going to be a brave warrior of the sea someday, so my life is always in danger. Even just a little hint that I'll make it back in one piece would be nice. Unless," he stopped suddenly, causing his companion to crash into him, "by meeting with my descendent I'll horribly alter the space-time continuum!" He put a hand to his forehead. "What have I done?"

"Hm? No, it doesn't work like that." Luna said when she caught her breath.

"What do you mean 'it doesn't work like that'?"

"I'm not so sure about the space continuum, but you can't alter the time continuum. You can change it around a bit, but you can't alter it."

"That's the same thing," Usopp sighed. "Well, then why shouldn't I meet with my descendent then?"

"It's a spoiler. Like, if you were reading a book and I popped out of nowhere and shouted, '***** kills ********** on page 596. You wouldn't want that would you?"

"I wouldn't but this is completely different."

"What's the point of risking your life for something if you know you'll come out the other end?"

Usopp stared at his friend for a bit, processing what she said. Before he had a chance to respond a huge crash from the other side of the building sounded through the air.

"What was that?" Luna asked.

"Not sure," the sharpshooter responded, "but maybe we should go the other way."

"Agreed, the other way sounds very favorable…"

* * *

Sanji was not one to question his actions. Sure, maybe challenging a fierce pirate crew fresh out of the Grand Line in the middle of a storm when he was ten wasn't the smartest of moves, but it was the course of action that made the most sense at the time, so he wasn't complaining.

Whatever it was that made him decide to jump in and help out some guy he'd never met before fight off a battalion of Marines, however, had him questioning his actions so very much.

He wasn't the only one that jumped in. Brooke had, of course, backed him up, and when they showed up, Cali and Tania joined the fray too. Cali had apparently inherited his fighting techniques along with his cooking ones, and although her mastery of the Red Leg Style was well below his, she was kicking enough ass. Tania, in the absence of Robin's devil fruit and Franky's robotic body, had developed her own martial art that mainly focused on short jabs to the soft, vulnerable parts of the body with her hands and feet.

The man they had jumped in to help, a rather muscular blonde man with bright blue eyes, was still fighting too. The Marines had managed to take his pistol by the time everyone showed up, but he apparently knew a thing or two about boxing. They motley group was actually starting to push them back, until they started shooting.

Sanji saw the other man get hit first and could tell that it wasn't a normal bullet. When he too got hit he could say for certain it wasn't a normal bullet. In fact, it wasn't a bullet at all, just a very tiny dart that was designed to be fired out of a normal pistol. He didn't know what was so special about it, but the pirate could feel it throbbing where it had entered him on his shin, and already he had trouble putting weight on that leg.

Shortly after that the Marines had the two of them on the ground and were in the process of tying them up. Sanji was able to see Brooke and the girls still fighting it out.

"Basil!" Sanji looked around for whoever shouted and found an all too familiar straw hat and an equally familiar head of marimo standing next to a vaguely familiar boy.

"Sanji!" his captain shouted, cracking his knuckles to prepare for another fight. One of the Marines saw this, whipped his pistol around, took steady aim, and fired. But it was fine, because Luffy's made of rubber, and bullets just bounce off of rubber.

Except this wasn't a bullet, it was one of those darts from before.

"Bleh…I feel tired all of a sudden…"

_Seastone…_ Sanji thought, _but where? In the dart? Then why fire at us?_

"Basil!" the boy shouted again, this time running forward.

"Toby! Stop!" Basil shouted. "Don't come any closer!"

"But…"

"Go away!" His tone became sterner. "I hate you! I never want to see you again! Get out of here!"

"But…"

One of the Marines took this time to fire at Toby only to have it stopped by one of Zoro's swords. He gave a quick look to Sanji and another to Basil before nodding and, in one swift movement, sheathed his sword, grabbed the protesting boy and his useless captain, and ran away. The Marines made a move to chase after them.

Just then, a shout of "_Hissatsu Kemuri Shot!_" rang from a nearby rooftop. The area where they had been fighting was completely covered with a smokescreen, making visibility impossible.

Sanji attempted to loosen his bonds while he could to no avail. Thinking quickly, he decided on the only course of action he could think of at the moment.

"Brooke!" He shouted as loud as he could, "I'll meet you in Alubarna!"

* * *

**Translation times:**

**gomu - **rubber (duh...)

**fuzen - **balloon

**yari - **spear

**hissatsu - **sure-kill

**kemuri - **smoke


End file.
